


The Time After and the Time Before

by nevermind_sanity



Series: Sanity's Adventures through Destiny 2 [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Lets do these strikes ad raids, and have emotions, and learn xyer is a horrible person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 19:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 68,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevermind_sanity/pseuds/nevermind_sanity
Summary: For a time things were supposed to calm down.It did, in the loosest of terms.





	1. Lady of the Lake

    A lot had happened since the last time he was here.

    It was surreal in a way when he transmatted back onto that beach. When he first woke up here, it was just him and Ghost, with no memory of almost anything. Now, almost two years later, he was instrumental in winning the Red War, had gained much knowledge, and was here with friends at his side. Much had changed, yet this place hadn’t been touched at all. Things simply continued on with life, undisturbed, no sense that anything had happened at all. He couldn’t help but feel his heart come to ease seeing it untouched.

    This place had a strong sense of familiarity with Alexander as he walked along the shoreline. It wasn’t just because he was reborn here, but the sense he had walked the same beach before. His drawings in the sand had long since vanished, but somehow he found the spot where he woke up, and stopped right there. He looked up to the forest that was stretched out before him, finding an urge to walk in.

    “…nice beach.” Sarah mumbled as she looked around. The Pines behind them loomed quietly them as the wind blew through, catching their clothing in the breeze.

    “It’s been a long time since we’ve been here… and we’ve come a long way.” Ghost commented as he looked around.

    “Was this where you were reborn?” Cid asked as he looked around at the cliffs.

    “Yep. This is where I found him.” Ghost gave a little nod.

    “It’s a peaceful place…” Gale mumbled as she looked out towards the lake, “At least, it is now. If you died here, then I imagine it was not so peaceful.”

     It was even back then, he thought. He knew this place, once part of a National Park, but now left alone for eternity. This however was not the place he had once called home. It was strange, the more he stared into those trees, the more he felt something tugging him forward, calling him. A familiarity was in his next step he took.

    He came this way for a reason. He ended up here for a reason. The question was where did he come from? That was the place he would find his answers.

    “Alex? Hey! Big guy!” Ash hopped right over to the EXO who seemed to have spaced right out as he started walking along the sand. “Earth to Alex! What’s going on up there?”

    He didn’t give any sort of answer, just kept walking as if he had been possessed. The four other Guardians looked at each other before deciding to simply follow. Ghost seemed just as worried as he nudged Alexander’s helmet to try and get his attention.

  Through the forest he seemed to walk a set path, taking odd turns throughout it. Cid frowned a little as he watched the Titan walk in a bit of a zig zagged pattern through the woods when there was a more straight forward way. Not to mention he could soon see they were about to walk straight into a rock face. It was weird, that was for sure. He found himself tilting his head as he thought about why he would be taking this strange route.

    “Should we… do something?” Gale asked as they followed.

    “I think… he’s remembering things from his last life.” Cid explained, “If you think about it, the beach is where he died, so if he’s going the other direction, and walking in that pattern…”

    “No… he was running.” Sarah said. “Running in a zig zag to avoid being shot, probably. That’s the only reason I can think of as to why he’d remember this sort of path.”

    “So where is he going then? Where did he start running from?” Ash asked with a raised brow.

    “…I think I know.” Ghost mumbled, “I think we’re going to his home.”

    When Alexander came to the rock face he stopped and looked up. When he turned he could see his friends following him, but vaguely flashes of him running through the same woods he just walked through clouded his vision. He had been badly injured, he remembered being in a lot of pain because he…

    He turned his gaze to the top of the rock face. He felt a small headache forming as he started to remember there being figures at the top, looking down at him and snarling. They jumped off after him…

    “Alex…?” Ghost asked. The Titan silently turned to the right and started to look for an easier way up the face. It didn’t take too long to find a slope that wasn’t as steep and had come vegetation growing on it to help him climb up it. He walked back to where he had been staring earlier and now instead looked down at the steep drop. He felt another headache forming as he raised his hand up this head in response.

    He fell here. He was sure he fell and hit his head…

    “Alex, you’re starting to freak me out. Are you ok?” Ash asked. She didn’t receive and answer as he turned around and started to walk again. He soon came to a clearing that they barely recognized as a road, and started to walk along the left side. The pavement had long since overgrown with grass and shrubs. There were some skeletons of cars left, but the majority of them were simply scrap heaps of rusted steel. The walking was easier here at least, even though Alex kept walking in a bit of a zig zagged pattern.

    It was a long walk in uncomfortable silence. Cid tried to come up with a few theories for this strange behaviour and where they might be going, but honestly didn’t have a clue what was really going on. Nothing seemed to get through to Alexander, who was having small flashes of running this way, being chased by something terrible. He didn’t know what it was, couldn’t remember, but he did know it was trying to kill him. It must have succeeded in Katherine Cove, but it took them a long time he noted.

    The Titan then took a sharp turn to his right. He wasn’t walking in that pattern anymore, but instead was following a path that existed no longer. He walked this way so many times, he was sure of it, and the further he walked, the more he felt a familiar presence. The rest started to notice a presence as well. Deeper within the forests there was something emanating Light. The further they walked in, the more she felt that light gently touching the entire area.

    Through a last bit of brush, the Titan finally came to a stop. They looked out upon the lake that was much larger than they would’ve thought and found themselves taken aback. A part of it was glowing such a soft blue as small orbs of light floated off of it and up through the skies. The presence was much stronger here. It was gentle, but hidden from their eyes.

    “What is this place Alex?” Cid asked. Alexander finally spoke.

    “Hilltop Lake. Easy to find, if you know what to look for.” Ghost translated, “This is just a small part of it. But this was where…”

    Alexander took a few steps forward and stopped at the water’s edge. He knew who was here. He had a slight memory of running from here to Katherine Cove, desperately trying to escape something. He had a fuzzy memory or two of a time when he was human. That was all he had, and he came here looking for answers. He didn’t know if he’d like the answers he’d find here, but he wasn’t about to turn around now.

    “Where, what?” Gale asked

    “You want me to…?” Ghost looked at his Guardian who beeped out his message. At first the Ghost was hesitant, but then seemed to gather courage and turned towards the glowing part of lake.

    “Terra! I know you’re here! It’s ok! It’s just me, Alexander, and some friends!” Ghost called out. The lake gave a ripple from the center of the glow. Slowly light seemed to gather there, and from the waters a figure of a woman suddenly burst to the surface, splashing water all the way to the shore. Her form was wispy, ethereal, made of pure Light. Long hair flowed out from behind her as her eyes gazed out at the Guardians. While Alexander stood unfazed the others found themselves taking a step back and staring in awe at her.

    “…I wondered if you would come…” she softly replied. Even though her voice echoed, there was no mistaking who this was. She stepped carefully on the surface of the water towards him. Quietly Alexander took off his helmet and gave it to Ghost to throw in transmat. He looked the woman in her glowing eyes, but to his dismay, he was failing to remember more than he already did.

    The last time the two hunters ran into anything like this, besides Ghaul, it had nearly killed Sarah. Sarah’s first kneejerk reaction was to reach into the void and aim her bow at the woman as a warning. Terra looked up and jerked away at the sight of the violet bow pointing its arrow right at her. She also noticed that Ash seemed to be reaching back, just in case she needed to pull out her Golden Gun.

    “Please! I do not mean him harm.”

    “Sarah! It’s fine!” Ghost translated, “She’s not going to hurt me.”

    Sarah looked between Terra and Alexander, before deciding to lower her bow and let it fizzle out. She would keep a sharp eye on this spirit though, as she couldn’t bring herself to trust it after the last one. Ash also lowered her stance a little as well.

    “I’m sorry…” Ghost translated as he looked back at Terra.

    “It’s quite alright, I understand the caution. There are other spirits here that tempt people.” She started to drift closer to Alexander. She wasn’t much shorter than he was now that they were standing closer together to compare.

    “You were there during the Red War…. why? Why did you help me?”

    “Because it was the right thing to do, and because I still love and care for you after all of these centuries.”

    “Even though I can barely remember you?”

    “Believe it or not, you’re the same Alexander that you were when you were human. I do not know what happened to cause you to become an EXO, but your spirit has persisted all this time, even with the memory loss, even with the lack of voice.”

    “So I was human once. Does that mean all EXO were once human?”

    “I believe so, yes. However, I do not believe all of the conversions were… willing. I know you never considered the possibility.”

    Alexander found himself wincing as another headache formed. There was a bit of a flash, something about lying in a bed, looking at his robotic hands in horror. Then trying to speak and grasping his throat because all that came out was…

    “You’re remembering more and more, aren’t you?” Terra asked.

    “Yeah… stuff’s been coming back to me. It’s weird, like forests felt familiar, because of this place. A small town named Trostland… similar to where…”

    Another headache, another tiny glimpse of a memory. He was human, had a voice, waving to people that were once friends on the street of a small town…

    “You came for answers, did you not?” Terra asked, “But answers to what?”

    Alexander waited until the headache passed before answering. His friends stood silent behind him, full of their own questions, but none of them dared to intrude on this moment.

    “All this time I kept feeling like I was forgetting something important. Something that I should remember but I don’t. I felt guilty, still do, that I couldn’t. And I think that something…”

    Alexander trailed off as he looked at her again. She raised a gentle hand up to his cheek. The motion was very familiar, very comforting, and caused another flash. For a moment he saw Terra, but not as a spirit. She had darker skin, black hair, a mischievous smile on her face, with feathered earrings she always wore because she was a…

    “That something…?” Terra asked, trying to encourage him.

    “That something… was you.” Alexander finally answered, “You said you were my wife…” he could feel his guts starting to twist about as he made this admission, “And believe me… I tried to remember. I really did. I tried everything I could think of to remember you but I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”

    Terra gently shook her head, “I know you tried… and it was perhaps cruel of me to try and give you hints to help you. I’m sorry.”

    “Then you…?”

    “Remember that first dream? I covered your eyes… asked you to guess who it was. That was me. That was me sharing you my memory of that day. It was when we moved into the house you built.”

     Alexander suddenly let out a yelp and held his head as more came back to him. Gale started to run up to him to help, but Terra was already taking care of it. She raised her other hand up to his head and started to give off some sort of energy similar to Gale’s healing rift. He clearly started to become relieved of pain once she did so.

He saw this one so clearly _. Sitting in a lazyboy, looking at a fireplace. Hands covered his eyes…_

_“Alex!” It was Terra’s sing song voice, he knew it. “Alex honey!”_

_“Heh heh, now who could that be I wonder?” That was his voice._

_“You’ve forgotten already! You break my heart! I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a T…”_

_“Hmmmm…. Tori?”_

_“No.”_

_“Tuna?”_

_“You’re an ass.”_

_He laughed as he brought his hands up to hers and moved them. He looked up with a smile at Terra, who was smiling back playfully. That long hair had been braided back out of the way, and he could see her eyes had been a deep brown._

_“You know I’m kidding. Like I’d ever forget you.”_

_“You promise?” she asked as she started to play with his hair._

_“I promise. Unless someone shoots me in the head, can’t control that kind of memory loss.”_

    The flash ended there. Alexander’s eyes were wide as he looked at her. He understood now why she gave him that one memory as she pulled away.

    “Oh… Traveler I’m so sorry… I swear I didn’t mean to…!” Ghost started to translate but she cut him off.

    “It wasn’t your fault my love. I must admit it hurt seeing you so lost when your ghost first woke you up. But then you started drawing in the sand, and I saw hope that you could perhaps remember. Though… that might have been cruel of me… and I’m also sorry. I saw how you struggled to find answers while you were also trying to find your own way at the tower.”

    “You were there, the entire time?”

    “Not the entire time. I would just come back to visit and see you. I cannot manifest a solid form if I’m too far away from the lake. Perhaps it’s because I’m still bound to my body, even though it’s long since rotted.”

    “I want to remember.” Alexander shook his head, “I want to remember my past life. I want to remember you. I want to remember how I became an EXO, why my voice is like this.”

    While remembering Terra was more personal, it was also important to remember how he became the very thing he was. The EXO origins were a mystery, and if he could crack his own code, it might give insight to the others as to how they became the way they were.

    “I can tell you everything up until you went off to war… but after that it’s a mystery to me. I’ve retained my memories as a spirit, but you have not as a Guardian. You clearly still have them though… buried somewhere in there.”

    He turned around to the people behind him a looked directly at Cid. If anyone had any idea on how to get his memory back, it would’ve been him. He didn’t realize Sarah and Gale also had pieces of theirs. (But really it was only because they hadn’t been dead for too long.) They had since taken their helms off to better look at the woman. He noticed that Cid didn’t make eye contact with him.

    “Cid… you know a way, don’t you?”

    “It’s a horrible way…” Cid mumbled.

    “Please. I need to be able to remember. If I can remember how I became an EXO, that could give you answers as well!”

    Cid still wouldn’t look right at him, as he debated on telling him or not. Once he spoke a word, he knew Alexander would just jump in despite his warnings. All eyes were on him now, curious, but also concerned. He could hear the pleading tone in those beeps, and the ghost’s translation wasn’t too far off from that tone.

    He sighed, “…it’s called Thanatonautics. It’s a term for Guardians who kill themselves purposely to get visions before being revived by their ghost. All of them were Warlocks, but there’s no reason for it to not be a Hunter or a Titan, if they were curious enough.” Cid started shaking his head, “But there’s a reason it’s frowned on. A lot of Thanatonauts went mad. Most try it once or twice and get scared out of it, but people who kept going started going crazy.”

    “We’re only going to do this once.” Ghost translated, but then looked at his Guardian and speaking on his own, “But what if it takes more than once Alex?”

    “Perhaps I can help with that.” Terra suggested, “But you will have to trust me Ghost. All of you will.”

    “No offense lady, but it’s a bit hard to trust you with his life. How do we know you’re not going to just run off with his Light or whatever?” Sarah asked, scowling.

    “If I give into that sort of temptation, strike me down. Your light will still cause me pain, you are powerful individuals. You cannot kill me, for I’m already dead, but you can cause me great suffering.”

    Alexander started beeping, pleading with Ghost let him do this. The little ghost who nearly lost him once was naturally hesitant. Those horrible days of floating around and searching for him, then crawling their way out of the city, dodging death at every turn… and now he wanted to purposely die and leave his fate in the hands of the spirit? It was a spirit that wanted to help them yes, and did try to help during the Red War, but Ghost was scared. He didn’t want to lose his friend again.

    Ghost looked at the other four for answers. Cid was shaking his head, not trusting in the mad science. Gale simply looked on, worried as usual. Sarah was chewing on her lower lip, uncomfortable with this idea. Ash folded her arms, glancing off to the side, also clearly uneasy with the entire thing.

    “What should we do?” Ghost asked them. They all looked at each other.

    “Have people gotten memories back from doing this?” Gale asked Cid.

    “There are records that it did work, but he didn’t like what he found.” He replied.

    “I remember some shit from my first life, but I think it was because I wasn’t dead long. I was alive during the dark ages.” Sarah explained, “Maybe there wasn’t enough time for me to lose those memories.”

    “Same with me. I have huge chunks missing, but I also remember a little. I don’t think I was dead long either because I died when there was a City.” Gale added.

    “I must’ve been dead a long time then cause I don’t remember shit.” Ash shrugged.

    “The point is that maybe our memories are buried in us somewhere, and our body limits our ability to remember somehow. Sounds weird, especially coming from me, but that’s the only thing I can think of. Maybe my body wasn’t total dust when my ghost found it and revived me and that’s how I can remember things.” Sarah suggested.

    “Still, I know what curiosity does.” Cid frowned, but also seemed a bit pained, “There’s a reason these people go crazy. You might not like what you find in those memories…”

    “Let’s not forget the last time we met a spirit, it tried to kill us.” Ash added. The two Warlocks looked at Sarah and Ash with a raised brow. Clearly they were out of the loop with that story. Alexander wasn’t sure what they were talking about either.

    Ghost looked back at his Guardian and the Spirit floating there. He didn’t sense any malice in the spirit, no one did, but it was still difficult to trust someone that was a stranger to them with their friend’s life. But Ghost also knew that Alexander if wanted to, he would’ve just shot himself in the head with his sidearm before anyone could do anything, but he wanted the others to be with him on this one. Perhaps it was because he was also scared to do this, but felt like he had to in order to get what he was after. Even the spirit seemed a bit unsure about this, and she too looked at Ghost for an answer.

    “…I will be able to bring him back, right?” Ghost asked.

    “Of course. Do you not feel the Traveler’s energy here? This is a place of light. You will be able to bring him back without a problem.”

    He looked at his Guardian. Honestly, he couldn’t believe what he was about to say to him next.

    “Ok… let’s do this.”

    Alexander could hear the other four getting ready for a fight if need be. Each one standing a little straighter, a little more prepared to reach back for their light and pull it out at a moment’s notice. Terra couldn’t help but admire that, even though it was against her. He really had made good friends, friends that were ready to throw themselves into battle for his sake.

    Alexander took a deep breath and reached for the weapon on his belt. He wouldn’t ask any of the others to kill him. That simply wasn’t right. He would do it himself, but he had to admit he was nervous. He knew this could go horribly wrong. Worst case scenario he had been played for a fool the entire time and this would be his last life. He didn’t think that was the case, there was no evidence for that, but the thought did make hesitate, and he knew it was part of the reason the others were wary of the situation.

    He mentally counted from three and then before he could have another second thought, pulled the side arm out from its holster, had it against the side of his head, and fired. He fell gracelessly to the ground, they felt in their chests that he died, but Ghost said nothing, and did nothing. They watched a little orb of light started to detach itself from his body, an orb that usually a Ghost would catch and use, but instead Terra floated over and gently cupped in her hands. She seemed to take a deep breath as energy as she drew more Light out of his body that started to take a different form. They could feel the raw energy it took to give it a shape, as the orb started to shape itself. Now it was holding her hand, becoming more and more humanoid. They watched him stand, and he clearly was different from the EXO body he inhabited. He seemed to be dressed in a military uniform, and he very clearly had human shaped features on his face and hair on his head. All five of the onlookers were staring slack-jawed and at a loss for words.

    Terra gently smiled, “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen that face.”

    “I…” Alexander was about to say something, but suddenly grasped his throat. They all heard it. It wasn’t a beep that came out, but a real human voice. It was a voice he remembered having in what little memory he gained back. Terra started to smile even more hearing it, even starting to tear up a little.

    “Alex…?” Ghost asked, since no one else seemed to be able to.

    “Ghost?” he started to say, still surprised at the sound of his own voice. “Y-Yeah it’s me… just… wow…” He looked at his glowing hands, “This is… h-holy shit…”

    “Are you ok?” Gale immediately asked once she got a hold of herself, “Nothing feels weird or…?”

    “This entire thing is weird Gale but… physically? Er… spiritually I guess? I’m fine. I’m just… wow…”

    “Holy shit Alex…” Sarah brought a hand to the side of her head in disbelief, “I’m gonna be honest, did not expect this.”

     “I wasn’t exactly expecting this either…” He looked at Cid, “But… you know what this means right? This is proof! This is proof right here that we were once human!”

     Cid was only able to give a nod, still in a state of shock. Of all the things he expected to happen, this was not one of them. It also raised some questions about himself, other EXOs, and he found himself starting to question his own past, even thought he had given up learning about it ages ago.

    “Look in the water Alex.” Terra suggested, pointing at the surface. He looked over and let out a small gasp at what he saw. He could see himself as he was when he had flesh and blood. He could see light brown hair messily placed on top of his head, blue eyes, skin that was lighter than Terra’s, and a bit of scruff over his lower face. He found himself reaching up to it, to feel that there was a pointed nose there, that there were ears, cheeks, brows, all things that he didn’t have in the same sense as an EXO. Terra was right beside him, smiling back. He could also see his Ghost now floating over his shoulder and clearly shocked at the image it saw.

    “That was you?” Ghost asked. He nodded. Curiously the others drew close to see. They saw their own reflections unchanged in the water, but could see Alexander’s and Terra’s and how different they were.

    “Hey, you looked pretty good.” Ash complimented, trying to diffuse some of the nervousness they all felt. “Still do of course but, you know what I mean.”

    “Alex…” Terra turned her gaze away from the reflection, “Do you remember now…?”

    He looked up at her. Now that she mentioned it, and he thought back, he  _did_  remember. So much was coming back to him, seeing his own face, hearing his own voice, being free of a body that limited his ability to reach back…

    He looked around, wide eyed, “It was here.” He breathed, “It was here where I first met you. That’s why this place is so special.”

    She seemed to brighten right up, “Yes! Yes this is where we met!”

    “There used to be a dock here.” He motioned to the shore next to Cid and outwards to the water, “Gone now, but you were sitting on it. I was just out here cause I wanted to explore. Didn’t expect you there, and you didn’t expect me there.”

    She nodded eagerly, “Yes, that’s right. We talked for hours. You didn’t know much about the Objiway.”

    “No, I didn’t. I wanted to learn more about the native culture and you told me.” He turned and gently pointed at her, “And you always wore those feather earrings as a symbol from your heritage.”

    “You remember all of that?” Ghost asked, sounding just as amazed as everyone else was.

    “That, and a lot more.”  He stared to walk along the edges of the glow, looking at the cliffs around him and the island that were further away from them, “I lived in a place a little further up north from here, was a welder. Loved to wander places like this. Was always curious what was in it and about the world. I liked this over the big crowded cities of the Golden Age.”

    “Seems like that curiosity trait didn’t leave you.” Sarah noted.

    “I remember spending every Saturday out here with you Terra.” He turned around and looked at her, “I remember the long talks, goofing off and having fun… falling in love.” He still felt some of that love now, even though it had been so long. “I remember your dad being mad that some welder who didn’t know the culture was gonna take you away, and proving him wrong.”

    “You do seem to like proving people wrong.” Gale added with a small smile.

    “I built a house not far from here.” He turned towards the north, “Worked my hands to the bone to make you a happy home. We were so happy when it was finished…”

    “We were…” Terra drifted up to be beside him, “We were happy for a long time… but…”

    “That letter…” Alexander mumbled as his gaze turned to his reflection. He then turned around to face the others and started walking towards them as he spoke, stopping once he came to the edge of the lake, “One summer I got drafted into the army. People had found something in the solar system moving towards this planet at a breakneck pace. They were calling it a calamity, and people predicted it was coming for the Traveler who had suddenly left Io.”

    “… The collapse.” Cid looked right at Alexander, frowning a little, “This was the start of it.”

    “Yeah. It was coming. We thought we had a hope in hell. We must’ve thought that because they were drafting people to fight. Others were running. I remember hearing about ships being sent off to escape the system. They didn’t make it far… as we know.”

    “Do you remember what attacked the planet?”

    Alexander sighed, “Unfortunately, that part is fuzzy, because I really don’t know. It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before, believe me. I only had a couple encounters with them. I only was in one battle that was a ways away from here… it was a disaster. As far as the eye could see the world was burning, and I mean literally. It was raining down this sludge that killed the plant life in some areas. As soon as I was on the ground I remember thinking that this was it… this was the end of the world. How were we to combat this? These creatures came at us, shadows like the Taken but darker. I can’t remember them well. I was a lot more focused on blowing them apart.”

    “Wait… why were you only in one battle?” Ash asked, “I would’ve thought there would be more than one.”

    Another sigh, “Our Captain… asshole named Vahn, I think, ordered us to push them back no matter the cost. We were getting slaughtered. We didn’t have a chance.” Alexander started shaking his head, “And as more died around me I realized how hopeless the battle was. I wanted to keep fighting, sure, but were outnumbered, out gunned. I shouted at them to run, that we were just marching to our deaths. I managed to round up enough people and we started to stage a retreat, even though Vahn was threatening to kill us himself if we did. One guy was trying to be a distraction to let the others run. I saw him and…” he looked at Sarah and Cid, “Remember when back at the Sunken Isles I stood there for a moment? I was remembering that. I ran out to try and shield this guy from the fury of their weapons. I turned around to escort him back and then…”

    He looked at his lifeless EXO body, remembering the reason he became what he was. “…my spine was severed. They struck me in the back and I fell down. I remember panicking… freaking out that I couldn’t feel my legs. This guy dragged me to hide behind a rock but he got shot shortly after. I remember crawling to safety while being shot at, someone found me… after that it’s fuzzy. I think I was drifting in an out of consciousness. I remember hearing Vahn yelling I should bleed out after what I did, but someone argued to save me. Someone insisted on saving me… but the only way was…” he knelt down beside his body and heaved another sigh, “… was that I became an EXO. I had no choice in the matter. I have no idea where they got this body from nor how it was made nor how the process worked. When I woke up again I was metal and wires. You can imagine I was really freaked out, even more so when I saw Vahn standing there on the other side of the room. The doctor said something about how ‘remarkable’ it was that I recovered so fast, but Vahn just shouted at him. I started to yell, but my voice… it was just what you hear from me normally. Beeps. Dashes and dots. It was made that way, and that’s why I still talk that way. I grasped my throat as I tried talking, and Vahn explained loud and clear. He was still pissed off that I told everyone to run, but the doctors convinced him to save me so he could have a war machine fighting. He thought I should still be punished, so he took my voice. The only reason I had a voice box at all was because without one there would be problems.”

    Terra quietly drifted over and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up for a moment to see their faces a mix of shock and horror at the reason behind his muteness.

    “Next thing I know some frazzled man came running into the room to tell Vahn the creatures decided to overrun the north. As soon as I heard they were reported close to Wawa I just sort of… snapped. I heard Vahn yelling that it was impossible, right before I punched the lights out of him. I threw aside the doctor and the messenger and ran for the nearest exit. I jumped into a supply crate heading back north and used that to stow away back to Wawa. I was able to gear myself up in there, but I knew it wouldn’t do anything if I met up with those things. Had a lot of time to think in that crate. Kept thinking about how Terra would react to me, if she had been told this happened, how would I explain to her without a voice who I was. I didn’t have much of a plan, just to try and get her out of the line of fire and see if we could go somewhere safe. By the time I got there though…” another sigh escaped as he looked down.

    “It… it didn’t hurt, if that helps at all.” Terra quietly explained, “I couldn’t fight them off.”

    “Traveler…” Gale shook her head. It was hard to swallow all that she was hearing. She had known Alexander as the Titan who had a big heart, and couldn’t imagine him going through that sort of hell. Yet…

    “You moved my body, didn’t you?” Terra asked, “You moved it here.”

    “I did… it was your favourite place, and mine. I thought it was fitting.” Alexander replied, “Those things found me though after I casted your body off. I ran for so long… along the road, through the woods, got to that cliff face and completely forgot about it until was I tumbling down it. I’m almost sure I smashed my head off of the rocks. Everything is fuzzy after that fall… I must’ve had some sense to keep running, but once I hit the beach…”

    He reached to the back of his head, “Maybe that’s why I didn’t remember anything. I remember a pain spreading across the back of my head for a second, and then nothing. The next thing I know, I wake up to Ghost reviving me with no memory of anything.”

    “I… I had no idea…” Ghost mumbled, “But my question is Terra, how did you find him?”

    “I woke up some time after he died. The last thing I remembered was being killed in my own home by those things. I was confused at first, looking at myself. I started to wander the woods, learning about my limitations and abilities. I eventually wandered to Katherine Cove. Time hadn’t been very kind to him. He was rusting, slowly falling apart. I didn’t recognize him as my husband, especially as his soul had already left, except for that one little spark that kept me curiously coming back. It took centuries, and I always wondered what happened, but eventually you came Little Ghost. You came and brought his soul back from the afterlife. I was confused as his body manifested into an EXO, but I knew it was him.” Terra explained.

    “And now after all this time… here you guys are.” Ghost mumbled. He floated to be face to face with his Guardian, “And now you know Alex… but now what? What are you all going to do?”

    That was a good question. They looked at each other, now that he finally had the pieces of his memory back together again. He then looked at the people he brought with him, the people he fought with, died with, and he knew very well that he would keep dying and fighting with.

    “…I got what I came for… and a lot more.” Alexander slowly stood up and looked back at Terra, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t remember all of this before. Now that I have… I know I have to go back. To the Tower. To wherever I have to go to stop the next calamity from happening. This can’t happen again.”

    Terra smiled sadly, “You’re giving yourself to a life time of war.”

    “I know, but all have.” He motioned to the Guardians behind him. “These people are the reason I’m here now. They’ve been fighting for a lot longer than I have to prevent a repeat of history. What happened to you, the world, I don’t want it to happen again. With the Traveler awake, who knows what that’s going to attract. If the calamity comes back for us… whatever it was, I want to be there fighting them back, or at the very least, saving as many lives as I can.”

    “You’ve already proven that Guardians can do the impossible.”

    “If that’s the case, I want to do the impossible and push back the darkness. I want to bring about a world where people can live happily, and anywhere on this planet.” His gaze turned to the horizon, “I was given a second chance for a reason. I was given a third chance for a reason. I’m not going to squander it. Human or not. Voice or not. One day, there will be no darkness left to fear. It will be just a distant memory.”

    “Those are ambitious goals… I see that’s not changed either.”

    Alexander smiled a little, “No, it hasn’t. But this isn’t exactly one I can pull off by myself.” He turned to his fireteam standing behind him with a smile, “None if it’s going to happen without these people.”

    “So long as you agree to not purposely kill yourself again, I think we can manage something.” Sarah commented, “You’re starting to sound like Hawthorne, which isn’t a bad thing. Might be time to finally get our asses in gear.”

    “I would happily fight if it meant we could see that happen.” Gale smiled a little folding her hands together in front of her.

    “I’ve been doing it for this long, I’d be happy to be along for the ride for years to come.” Cid added.

    “We kicked ass in the Red War. I think we can kick some more when the next big threat shows up and tries to kill us.” Ash added with a cheeky grin.

    “I see you have quite the group Alex.” Terra giggled.

    “Yeah. Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Alexander grinned ear to ear as he said that. She missed that goofy grin, and was happy she could see it one more time.

    “Well, I think I can safely trust you in their hands.”

    “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him. We won’t be able to keep him out of trouble though.” Ash winked.

    “How can we when it finds us like a magnet?” Cid asked with sarcasm lacing his voice.

    “He’s hanging with the right crowd for finding trouble, that’s for sure.” Sarah rolled her eyes.

    “So… what will you do Terra?” Gale asked after a brief moment.

    “I’m content. I think I will stay here for a while, and then perhaps wander. There are others who need a small whisper in their ear to help them forward. But please, feel free to come back any time. I only ask that you keep this place quiet unless someone needs help.”

    “I have a feeling our Warlock Vanguard will want to talk with you, or send someone out here. You have a lot of info that could help us. We lost a lot when the City went down.”

    “Hm… that could work… under conditions. I don’t know her well though…”

    “She’s a woman of her word. Trust me. She’ll keep quiet about this place.” Cid added.

    Terra smiled a little, “And an influential one at that. It would be nice to get the story of a people back out into the world. Alright, I can agree to meet her if she has the time. I’ll be here.”

    “Well…” Alexander looked at his Ghost, “I think it’s time to leave. Got a long road ahead after all. I feel a lot better knowing where I came from though.”

    “I’ll be right beside you partner! You ready for revival?” Ghost chirped.

    Alexander nodded, “Bring me back buddy.”

     Ghost opened his shell and Alexander’s form shrunk back down to that ball. He was placed right back into his body by the ghost who put the pieces of his head back together again. The EXO awoke with a start as usual, but quickly shook it off and started getting back up.

    “Everything ok Alex?” Ghost asked. He got some beeps in response, and Ghost happily turned to the others, “He’s fine.”

    “Good.” Terra sighed in relief.

    “Alright everyone, we got a long road ahead. Still have some cleanup work to do around the system.” Ghost translated. The pair then turned to Terra, “And thank you. For everything.”

    Terra nodded, “Eyes up Guardian. Go now, your legacy and future awaits.”

    Alexander nodded and turned to the others. They all gave a nod in confirmation. Ash then started waving at Terra.

    “Nice meeting you!” She called, “Stay out of trouble!”

    Terra laughed a little, “I should be saying that to you.”

    “Don’t bother. She  _is_  trouble.” Sarah rolled her eyes a little, but managed a smile and a wave, “Take care now ok?”

    “It was a pleasure meeting you.” Gale and Cid both gave a bit of a bow to her as Gale spoke, “I’m glad things are turning out well.”

   “As am I…” Terra started to float back to the middle of the glow. Terra and Alexander exchanged a look. He felt sad suddenly. Perhaps it was because he was finally closing a chapter in a story he only just learned. They both knew this was the end for them, and it was time to move on. They would always hold a love for each other deep, but it was time for them both to more on into their futures. It was a future they could not share in the way they wanted to. He may be back one day, just to visit, but his travels would him far away from here. It would be a long time before the two ever saw each other again.

    “Goodbye Terra.” Ghost translated. He could hear the bit of a lump in Alexander’s voice box when he spoke.

    “Maybe we’ll meet in the next life.” Terra suggested gently, “If we’re destined to have one…”

    “I’d like that…”

    Another smile, a sad one as her form started to seep into the water, “As would I…”

    She then dissolved into thousands of tiny orbs of light that sank into the water and became part of the glow. They stood there in silence for a moment. Alexander felt that odd feeling in his eyes, but decided to brush it off, turn his back on the lake, and started to walk out. He didn’t dare to turn around.

    “Are you ok?” Gale asked as she quickly caught up. Alexander gave a nod.

    “Think of it this way, I think you both feel a little better now after all that.” Sarah suggested without even a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “I mean heck… you even had a chance to talk to her. That’s… a pretty fucking amazing opportunity. One a lot of people wish they could’ve had…”

    Ash didn’t say anything to that, knowing what she was getting at.

    “Yeah.” Ghost translated as the EXO start to smile a little, “That is true.”

   “Side note, if for some reason Vahn’s still alive, I’m punching him in the face for you.” Ash suddenly piped up, trying to change the subject.

    “You do realize the chances of him still being around are pretty slim right?” Cid asked.

    “If they turned Alex into an EXO, why not him so he could live forever? I mean think about it, you guys are supposively ‘war machines’ but you’re just as human as the rest of us.” Ash shrugged, “I think someone wanted to live forever, and Vahn sounds like the kind of guy who would do just that and hide out while the world was ending.”

    “A decent theory I suppose…” Cid mumbled, “But you might have to beat Alex to the punch.”

    “Oh no, if Alex is there when we find that asshole, he gets first dibs. I call second.”

    “We could punch him in the dick, if he has one.” Sarah suggested as they came out to the road.

    “Wait, do you EXOs have…?” Ash started to ask but was cut off.

    “No.” Cid and Alexander both replied with Ghost translating afterwards. They were lying, but the two seemed to have both silently agreed not to explain that bit to Ash of all people without even realizing it.

    “Well that answers my burning question. But if you can eat or drink, get drunk, then that means you can also get high, right?” Ash asked.

    “How did this conversation turn into what can EXOs do?” Cid asked.

    “I’m trying to get ideas. I mean if this Vahn guy is still around I wonder if he’s getting plastered because of how much of an ass he was. Though what is it like being high?”

    “Why are you asking like I’d know?”

    “I dunno, I thought everyone tried it at least once in 20 years.”

    “I can’t believe you people are my friends.” Sarah groaned. Alexander couldn’t help but laugh (or at least his version of a laugh) at this. He really was with an interesting crew, but after the Red War, there were no other people he’d rather run through hell with.

    He was happy. He had everything finally in order, and he had these people at his side.


	2. The Rose and the Thorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Past loves coming to bite people.

   The excursion to the other side of the planet had Cid thinking lately. Up until then, he had been too busy to really deal with his own problems: working day in and day out to rebuild and salvage what he could. It was only now the work slowed down, and he was finally able to go back to fighting again, finally able to go with Alexander to find that woman.

    The problem was, he had a past following him around, and it was coming back to haunt him again. Now that he had idle hands, he had time to think and dwell.

    It came in the form of mostly his three friends. Every time they had a moment, they would go out and talk, only for Cid to feel rather uncomfortable. He certainly didn’t forget he was lied to about the fate of the others. Even the other three seemed slightly uneasy, all choosing not to speak of the elephant in the room. He also felt himself drifting away, in a literal and figurative sense. He spent a lot more time with Gale, Alex, and Ash than them. He even spent more time chatting with Sarah when she was around before she had to bounce back to the wilds than he would with the others. The light that they had left in him over the years slowly seeped away as well. At one point he could pick them out in a crowd without a problem, but now it was a general idea at best. So long as it was not acknowledged, the rift would only get bigger.

    Then of course there was Zavala. Cid had held his tongue about the subject for the last few months. He brought it up to Ikora who shared the sentiment of being frustrated with that decision. She amounted it to desperation, but it was still no less infuriating. Now that there was time however, he felt the need to at least speak to Zavala, to know what the man was thinking. He swore to himself he would keep himself in check. He wouldn’t lose it on the commander. He would do everything in his power to be at least a bit understanding.

    He would prove his friends wrong.

    He opened the door to the rebuilt office to found it empty, with a little note on the desk saying ‘Be Back Later.’ Cid gave a small sigh and closed the door behind him. There was a small shelf of books on the far side of the wall he could read while he was waiting he supposed. He knew Zavala didn’t mind people waiting around in the office, especially if they were also interested in the books. He remembered the collection was once bigger, but so much had been destroyed he wasn’t surprised that it was now reduced to one and a half shelves.

   He placed a metallic finger over the spines to help him read some of the faded words. His hand stopped when he felt something behind him. He turned around towards the door. He could sense those three lights that had been drifting away coming towards him.  _Great_ , he thought. This was just what he needed. He was here to confront someone in the first place however, so he supposed now would be as good as a time as any. He hoped it wouldn’t last long, not long enough for Zavala to get back…

   He actually shouldn’t start something here, he knew that. At the same time he felt his guts twisting about, his right hand twitching a little, and that anger boiling to the surface which he kept beneath a shell of self control. He had to say  _something_. This couldn’t keep going on.

    When the three guardians walked into the room, their intent was to meet with Zavala. It was just supposed to be a normal talk, with perhaps getting some advice for telling their friend they straight up lied to him. As they got closer, they knew that it was their friend in there. Perhaps he was waiting for Zavala as well? Hard to say. Edna found herself nervously gripping the handle of her knife feeling his presence. She, Paul, and Tom had been meaning to tell him for some time now the truth, but they didn’t know how to. They supposed if he was in there, now was as good of a time as any, if they could find the words.

    Edna opened the door first. She expected Cid to have turned his head towards them, but his gaze remained on the window behind Zavala’s new desk. At first they thought he was just being a cryptic Warlock in thought, but they started to notice the twitching of his hand. Suddenly the three Guardians started to feel a little worried, a little guilty…

    “Hey, glimmer for your thoughts?” Edna asked, finding herself chewing on her lower lip. Something was wrong in here. Something was very wrong.

    “Don’t know. I know I might need to pay to hear yours.” Cid responded rather coldly.

    “Oi, Cid. If there’s something…?” Paul started to say.

    “You lied to me.”

    Just like that, the penny dropped. All three of them felt those words stab them in their guts. He knew. Just to twist the knife even more, the Warlock finally looked at them, and they could see the anger and the grief on his face. It was clear he was doing everything in his power to stay calm, but his hand was a dead giveaway that he wasn’t. He could see their guilt ridden faces at being found out.

    “How did you…?” Edna started to ask.

    “Alex told me.” Cid’s hands lowered to his sides as his hands cured up into tight fists, “Of all the damn people in this world I expected to look me in the eye and lie to my face about what happened to two other friends, you were the last people I would’ve thought to do that. A man who I’ve only known for less than a year at that point had more fucking integrity to tell me the truth than my best friends for the last 20 years.”

    Neither Paul nor Tom could look him in the eye. They had their reasons for going along with this, but there truly was no excuse for what they did. If Cid really wanted to, he could be yelling and screaming at them, they knew that. But even though the EXO was showing incredible self control, it might come to that anyways.

   “I can explain.” Edna took a step forward. This was all her idea after all. She should take the brunt of this.

    “Start explaining.”

    “Look, I was worried that if we told you the truth you would go and rip Zavala’s head off. He was literally the only thing keeping together those Guardians and he was only barely doing that.”

    “You really thought I wouldn’t have saved it until he had the city back?” Cid was trying not to raise his voice, but it was already incredibly difficult.

    “Yes! I did think that! Yes, I was wrong! We were all wrong! We were going to tell you the truth!”

    “You still thought it was ok to lie to me about something that was important!”

    “I was trying to make sure what little fucking morale we had wasn’t going to be destroyed.”

    “So that’s what is fucking was?! Better to lie to me thinking I can’t fucking control my temper when people’s lives are on the line?! You didn’t fucking think for one second that just maybe I could or if it really mattered?”

    “Look Cid, we’ve seen you bad. Not the five years ago bad, but still real bad. I know right now you’ve got the fury of a thousand suns you’re trying to hold back. I didn’t want that on our leader’s head when we needed him the most!”

    “May I remind you that Alexander bailed you out of the mess he got you in?”

    “That’s not the fucking point!”

    “No, you’re right, it’s not. The point is that ALL THREE OF YOU THOUGHT THAT LYING TO MY FUCKING FACE WAS A GREAT IDEA!”

    Both of them suddenly stopped at a throat clearing behind Edna. They turned around to see the Commander himself. His face however wasn’t that of anger of disappointment. It was almost as if he was understanding. It was almost as if he had been waiting for the consequences of his terrible mistake. This was just one of them.

    “…and you.” Cid looked Zavala directly in the eye and shook his head, “What possessed you to think any of that was a good idea?”

    “…there was mislapse in judgement. But truly, I have no excuse other than desperation.” Zavala calmly replied.

    “They were fucking telling you there would be Hive there!” he motioned to the other three, “The Dreadnaught is not that far away! Does the Great Disaster mean anything to you? Because you tried to take it, a bunch of Lightless Guardians got killed! Marlene and Darin, two people that helped you through hell, are gone now because of that mistake! If you had taken five fucking minutes to realize how bad it was in there we might not have lost them!”

    “I’m… well aware…” Zavala swallowed a little before looking Cid in the eye, “I know it doesn’t mean much to you now… but I am truly sorry.”

    He was scowling, but he seemed to let it go in favour of the thing that bothered him more. “It’s more than I’ve gotten out of these people.” Cid turned his gaze back to Edna.

    “I didn’t mean to…!” Edna started to argue.

    “It doesn’t matter if you meant to or not!” Cid yelled, “You did! You all did! You collectively didn’t have enough faith in me to keep it together until this was over!”

    “Can you fucking blame us after the Thorn?!”

    The room suddenly went dead silent. Everyone felt the heat leave the room and it suddenly going ice cold. That was probably one of the worst things Edna could have said, and it was clear it hurt. If her words had been blades, she just chose the largest one and impaled it into his chest. She quickly realized her mistake, but it was too late to take those words back.

     _Can you blame us after the Thorn?_

    “Is… is that it?” Cid’s words were so eerily quiet, “I… I get it…”

    “I didn’t mean… you didn’t…”

    “Yes I fucking did!” Cid suddenly snapped, “I know it was my fault! I know that!”

    “Cid, that wasn’t your fault. You did not know what would happen.” Zavala tried to intervene. Now the Titan Vanguard had gone from accepting to stern, but it was not because of Cid’s outburst.

    “It doesn’t matter! I still did that! You know I did that!” He took a step back, starting to back down. So much work was being undone right before them with that little sentence.

    “No! You didn’t do that! It was a mistake-!” Paul finally got the nerve to speak up, but at this point nothing they said would any of this better.

    “A mistake that killed a lot of people!” Cid yelled right back. Suddenly he wasn’t nearly as angry with Zavala anymore. Didn’t he do something foolish as well? Didn’t he do something similar that was so costly? He saw signs that it was trouble, but he still kept going, and the end result…

    He sensed another person coming closer to the room, but couldn’t focus on it as he was still in the midst of an argument. His only thought was that he had to leave it as soon as he could before…

    “May I remind you that you weren’t in control of your actions when that happened?” Edna frowned and pointed at him.

    “I was in control up until I had my hand on the gun. I saw how it was reacting. I should’ve stopped. I should’ve thrown that fucking thing out the window before it could hurt anyone!”

    There was a sound of a door opening, but no one paid attention to it. Zavala stepped forward between Cid and Edna to try and defuse the situation a little more.

    “That’s enough. I think it’s best we bring this discussion elsewhere.” He looked at Cid, “I know you blame yourself for what happened, but there was no way you could’ve predicted the results.” Zavala looked at Edna to scold her as well, but his attention quickly turned to Cid again when the EXO spoke up.

    “It was my fault! Don’t you get it? They do. They can’t trust me anymore and I don’t blame them! I should’ve destroyed the Thorn when I had the chance instead of trying to pick it up and getting possessed!”

    “So it was…” a new voice, one that Cid knew very well, spoke up. He looked up to Gale staring at him wide eyed in the door way as she started to put the pieces of the puzzle together. He felt like something had punched him in the gut as a wave of horror came over him. He felt himself shaking.  _No, no, no, no_   _you’re_   _not supposed to find out! Especially not like this! Not like…!_

     _Stop looking at me like that._  He thought as she kept her gaze on him. Her clasped hands were to her chest, gripping tightly as she processed that. He found himself taking another step back, feeling so small in that moment. He felt his insides twist and scream, his mind drawing blanks on what to say. Instead it raced to every single horrible thought he could think of.  _She knows. She must be scared of me now. She must hate me now. She must…_

    “Cid…?” she started to ask and take a step forward. Why was she looking at him with that look? That worried look she always gave when she knew something was very wrong? Why was she worried about him when she should be…?

    He felt his heart hammering in his chest, panic taking over as she slowly got closer. No one really knew what to do in this situation. It was already pretty bad, and it was very easy to make things worse. Gale was careful with how she approached, but not because of the Thorn. No, it was because she watched how he trembled like leaf in violent wind. She had people in her line of work come to her in a panic attack, and she was seeing very similar signs in her friend.

    She slowly reached out for him, and Cid backed away. There was a short moment, but it seemed to drag on forever, that their eyes met. He could see the slight glaze over her eyes, staring up at him. They were looking for something, and he didn’t know what. A sign that perhaps it had been a joke? A confirmation?

    Once it passed, Cid finally couldn’t take it anymore and ran past Gale, past Zavala and his old fireteam, and made a break for his room. His only governing thought was to get out and get somewhere else. He could lock the door to his room, no one else could get in there. In there was safe…

    “Cid!” Gale called after him as she started to chase him, “Cid wait!”

    The four others turned and watched the retreating Warlocks. Zavala looked to the other three with a scowl, and they shuffled out of the office without another word.

    “I’ll talk to you later Edna.” Zavala sternly told her before shutting the door behind them.  They looked at each other, then down at their feet, Edna feeling more guilty than she ever had before in her second life.

    Cid ran all the way to the dorms, pushing past anyone who got in his way. He could hear Gale behind him, asking him to stop, but paid no heed. He came to his room, threw open the door, and slammed it shut behind him. He quickly locked it, and only then did he sink down against it, finally feeling somewhat safe. In here he couldn’t hurt anyone. In here he could hide. In here was safe…

    He heard her knocking on the door. She sounded close to tears when she spoke, asking him to open up, to talk to her. Sorry was a word that was put in there a lot, which he didn’t understand. He was the one that messed up horribly, not her. Why was she sorry?

    He didn’t answer, as much as part of him wanted to go out there and comfort her, the rest of him thought it better to stay put. He quietly curled up into a little ball, burying his face into his knees. He heard her give up and walk away, feeling even more guilty when he heard a few sniffles she tried to hide. He was alone now, and a huge part of him was starting to wish he wasn’t as he curled up even tighter.

    He eventually fell asleep there, tired out from emotional turmoil.

* * * *

    Floating in a vast nothingness was supposed to be relaxing. The need to feel anything or do anything was taken away from the person. It was supposed to be a space to just float away from all their worries and troubles.

    Naturally that wasn’t the case for the EXO, so deep in dreams that he wasn’t aware this was a dream. What he felt instead was panic. His heart was beating wildly again his chest as he struggled to grasp something, anything. He cried out for someone, anyone to help him. It was dark in here, and in the dark there was a danger lurking that he was still terrified of.

     **You should’ve listened to her.**

    This voice was new. He didn’t know this deep, threatening voice that called out for him.

    “Who…? Who the hell…?”

     **You know who I’m talking about. She can show you a whole new world, one that you can thrive in, one that everyone can thrive in if they’re strong enough. But you resisted. There will be punishment.**

    He felt something grab him from behind. Judging by the strength that the other held as he tried to struggle and escape, it had to have been a Titan or something of similar caliber. He reached up to try and burn the man’s arms, but to his horror he couldn’t summon forth any Light, just like before…

    “Stop it! Let go of-!” Cid started to shout, but the man quickly covered his mouth with one large paw reducing his yells to muffles. He felt himself being pressed to the other man, and felt something cold being pressed his neck. A sharp blade of some sort, but that didn’t make sense. The man had an arm around his lower torso and his other hand over his mouth. Where did this knife…?

     _It’s me of course._

    There was a voice he did know, and it made him freeze right up. He looked over to his right and immediately started to try and get away from the Witch that stood right beside them, holding what he could now see was a sword against his neck, pressing and scratching against the metal. He kicked, pulled at the man’s arm, tried everything he could think of for some chance to get away, but all he could hear was that cackle, and the man did not budge.

    _Oh lower your hand Dredgen. I want to hear him cry out._

   The hand was removed and instead went to his chest, holding the EXO in place. Cid tried to turn his head away from her, but she grabbed his jaw and forced him to look at her.

    _It’s been a while my dear. How have you been? I’m glad you lived through the foolish Red War._

   “Fuck off…” Cid hissed.

    _Now that’s no way to greet an old friend._

   She started to press the sword up to his neck a little harder, her hand getting a firmer grip on his lower face. Her smile was wicked as she leaned in a little closer to his face.

_I’ll never leave you alone._

  “S…stop…”

_You’ll never get rid of me._

  “Stop…” he felt her claws digging into his jaw. He tried not to wince in pain, but Traveler he was so terrified. What was she going do to him now? Hell, if she was going to possess him again, what would she do to everyone else? What would she do to…?

     _I’ll kill them_

    “W…what?” he stuttered out as she moved her hand and let his head move freely

     _That sweet little Warlock you like so much? That little Hunter with the sword? The woman with the bow? That idiot? That Titan that struck down Ghaul? All of those other precious friends? I’ll kill them all. I‘ll take their Ghosts and tear them apart._

   Cid tried to struggle to get himself free once more.  _No, no, no, no, no!_ Not again! He wouldn’t let this happen again! Not them! Especially not to them!

_I’ll make you watch. You will watch as I kill each of them one by one. I’ll rip the guts out of the bowswoman, I’ll choke the life out of that tiny girl, I’ll smash the Titan to bits, I’ll behead that idiot, and I’ll leave that Awoken for last. I’ll slowly break every bone in her body. I’ll enjoy every moment she cries and squirms before I slit her throat. And the best part…?_

    “STOP IT! STOP IT! LEAVE THEM ALONE!” Cid suddenly bellowed. He could feel himself shaking, wishing he could get free and kill them both. He suddenly looked her in the eyes, his desperation showing fully, “FUCKING HELL LEAVE THEM ALONE! YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO ME, BUT LEAVE THEM ALONE! PLEASE!”

     _Oh my dear Cid, you didn’t hear the best part_. She leaned forward to his ear.  _All of this will be done by your hands. You’ll smile as you gut Sarah. You’ll laugh as you choke Ash. You’ll find joy in smashing Alexander to bits. You’ll feel such satisfaction cutting down Red. And breaking Gale? Ah, you’ll feel such a pleasure you’ve never known as she begs for you to stop, and she cries tears of pain and screams as you break something else…_

   “NO! NO! SHUT UP! I’M NOT-!” Cid suddenly cried out in pain as he felt something dig into his leg. He looked down to see thorns rising up from the nothingness and wrapping around them. They dug and pierced into the metal, causing him to leak out the black lifeblood inside. They quickly snaked their way up his body and the man behind him let him go as the vines did their work. The Witch even removed her sword once the Thorns reached up to his neck and started to squeeze. His arms and legs were now bound and he could feel one more vine forcing its way into his mouth and across to prevent him from screaming. He couldn’t move, he was in so much pain from all of the holes in him that were bleeding him out, and his Light was nowhere to be found to burn it all away.

_But you will. You don’t have a choice._

_Please…! Please no…!_

    The Witch started to lean in. She was too close, uncomfortably so. She looked right into those golden optics, trembling with his fear. If he had been able to, he might have been in tears by now.

    She smiled and he suddenly felt the blade going through his abdomen…

* * * *

    He awoke up with a jolt, letting out a loud cry throughout the room. He looked all around, trying to get his bearings. He could feel the door against his back, and Charon was trying to nudge him to comfort him. It wasn’t the same room he used to wake up in, but there was still enough around to remind him it had been a dream.

    “Are you ok?” Charon asked, looking up at him in worry.

    He didn’t really respond to that. Instead he felt his shoulders sink as he finally found himself able to relax. He slowly curled up into a ball again as his Charon started to brush up against his head to try and comfort him.

    “It was that witch again, wasn’t it?” Charon asked.

    “Yeah…” Cid mumbled.

    “I’m so sorry…”

    “What for? You didn’t do anything.” 

    “It’s just… you must feel so awful. That was… cruel to bring it up again. And Gale…”

    Cid let out a groan at the reminder, feeling all that guilt hitting him at once, “She wasn’t supposed to… not like that…”

    “I don’t think she hates you. She came back earlier while you were still passed out, worried about you. I told her you were asleep, and she said she’d be back.”

    “She shouldn’t come back…”

    “Cid, don’t start that.”

    “She’s been at my side the entire time. She had no idea she was fighting with a murderer. She trusted me… and I didn’t have the guts to tell her…”

    “Would you have turned her away if your roles were in reverse?”

    “I… no…”

    “Then why would she?”

    “But I…”

    There was a knock on the door. The voice that followed was clearly Gale’s.

    “You should talk to her.” Charon suggested. “You can’t hide in here forever. You can’t go back to the way things were when you first came home…”

    He looked up at the wall as he listened to her knock again. Her voice supported what Charon was saying, but there was this doubt threatening to crush him. There was no way she didn’t fear him, or hate him that doubt said. The fact she kept coming back was evidence against that doubt, but it still took all of his strength to stand up again at the third knock. As he turned around he found himself staring at the doorknob. Such a simple thing seemed so threatening now, just like before. He managed to reach over to it, but his hand hesitated when it came close. He found himself clenching his jaw and squeezing his eyes shut as a small wave of fear came over him.

     _You can’t go back to the way things were before._

    He took a deep breath and slowly grabbed hold of the doorknob. When he turned it, he could hear her surprise on the other side. He opened his eyes and tried to relax his jaw as he opened it up just a crack at first.

     _Come on, get it together…_  he silently scolded himself. He opened the door to see her face. She was a bit relieved that he finally let her see him, but she knew he was still very, very troubled.

    “Hey…” she started, “Are you ok?” Dumb question she knew, but she had to ask.

    “I… no…” he decided to just straight up tell her this time as he shook his head. “I’m really not.”

    “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She looked down at her feet for a moment.

    “No, you didn’t. You weren’t supposed to find out… not like that…”

    She looked back up at him, “Were you ever going to tell me?”

    He looked away, “I… planned on it. I…” he glanced over to her again before his gaze fell. “I’m sorry…”

    He started to close the door again trying to retreat, but she quickly put her hand on and pushed it back.

    “Wait!” she cried, “Don’t go yet! I promise I don’t…!”

    “Why?” he suddenly raised his voice, “Why do you keep coming back? You trusted your life to a man who didn’t tell you he was a murderer! I fought alongside you, talked with you, had every chance under the damn sun to tell you this but I…!”

    “I trusted my friend, and still do! It was a mistake Cid! And I understand why you were scared to tell me!” She raised her voice in return.

    “I should’ve thrown that thing out! Should’ve destroyed it when it started glowing! Should’ve realized it was a stupid idea but I…!”

    “How could you have known that would happen? There’s no way you could’ve!”

    “I should’ve at least had a second thought! If I didn’t people wouldn’t have died to my stupid mistake! I’m not that Light you thought I was!”

    “Then what do you call The Black Garden? What do you call Crota? Oryx? SIVA? Ghaul? You had a hand in taking down all them! All of them were threatening our world! You’ve been kind to me, to all of us. You never hurt us.”

    “But… I…” Cid started shaking his head. Gale felt her fingers digging into the cloth of her clothing. She couldn’t understand how he was so convinced he was a horrible lying murderer when he was anything but. He was so wrapped up in self hatred in that moment he clearly didn’t want to accept anything that demonstrated the contrary. “Gale don’t you get it? I’m a terrible person, terrible Warlock, terrible fucking Guardian that should’ve known better and I…!”

    “No!” She cried out, her hand balling up into a fist, “You’re not! That’s not true! You know it’s not!”

    “Why?!” he suddenly blurted out, “I did this! I didn’t tell you! You should be mad at me! You should hate me! You shouldn’t…!”

    “STOP IT!” she suddenly shrieked, and silenced him. She looked down at the ground, but he noticed a tiny shudder through her body, and heard a sniffle. He suddenly felt like the worst person in the world. Not for the Thorn, but for making her cry.

    “Stop it! Stop it already!” she shouted past the growing lump in her throat, “Stop saying things like that about yourself! It’s not true! It’s not damn it! It wasn’t your fault! You’re not a horrible person! You’re not! You’re my best friend! You’re bright, you’re kind…. and I… I…!”

    He knew he should do something to calm her down. He started to reach over, but found himself hesitating again. Again there was that doubt, that self hatred, holding him back, telling him that he shouldn’t touch her. He knew very well that she liked hugs, liked hand holding and it was a comfort to her. He knew she would want to be touched and be comforted. With that thought in mind he did manage to overcome that hurdle and gently put a hand on her cheek which caused her to look up. He could see a stray tear his hand brushed away, and her face… that look on her face…

    “I’m… I’m sorry…” he managed to get out over the growing lump in his throat. He felt that burning in his eyes, a shudder through his body. Guilt coursed through his veins as she reached up for that hand on her face.

    “I don’t hate you…” she gently told him as she laid her hand on top of his, the other reaching up to hold his wrist, “I’m not afraid of you. I know who you are, and it’s not what you think the Thorn made you. You’re still my friend. This doesn’t change that.”

    She managed to smile with glazed over eyes, and that was what finally did it for Cid. He felt so much hit him all at once. The guilt and grief was there, but so was joy and relief. He didn’t want to lose her, as stubborn as he was in his self loathing. He didn’t think for one second however that after finding out about the Thorn she would still be standing there smiling at him like that. He had been so scared she would run, but she was still here.

    He was lucky that she was also stubborn, and managed to cut right through to him.

    His body let out a few shudders and some cries came out of his throat. He felt Gale move in to hold him, and he gratefully took it. He buried his face in her shoulder as he held her tight. It was strange in a way, sobbing without tears, but that was the best way to describe what he was doing. Those sobs wracked his body, whimpers and cries he tried to silence came out with each one. The only thing missing were tears from his eyes, but he didn’t need those. The rest of him did well enough to convey how he felt.

    She ran her hand up and down his back as he finally let it all out. She was able to shuffle him back into his room and heard Charon push the door shut behind them. She knew he wouldn’t want anyone else to see him like this, and this way he didn’t have to worry about that. She wondered if he had been afraid from day one when they first met if she would find out his horrible secret. Now that she thought back, even to then, she could see little signs of it everywhere, and all the pieces came together at last.

    And then she heard everything, start to finish, what had happened to him. As soon as he was calm enough to speak he started telling her the story, along with every horrible detail. Her eyes widened as she listened to what the Witch did, what sort of hell he crawled through, and how long it took to finally get back up.

    “I’m so sorry… Traveler that’s awful Cid…” Gale held him a little tighter.

    “I’m sorry too…” he quietly mumbled into her shoulder, “For everything.”

    They stood there for a while longer. He was slowly calming down, taking deep breaths to settle himself. If he was honest, he felt so much better now. All of that anxiety, fear, guilt, things he had been carrying but didn’t even know, was gone. It was finally out in the open air, and after all of that, she was still here. She was still running a hand up and down his back, still hanging on, and deep down, he knew she would never leave. She didn’t leave after learning about the Thorn, he doubted she ever would now.

    He wasn’t a monster, deep down he knew that, and that’s why she wouldn’t leave his side.

    Eventually they did pull away from each other, but even then she held his hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. He could see Charon out of the corner of his eye, and he seemed… happy?

    “Why don’t we get something to eat? We can sit over by those couches and just talk if you want.” Gale suggested with a small smile.

    “I would like that.” Cid managed a tiny smile of his own. “And… Gale…?”

    “Yes?” she tilted her head a little. She then felt him squeezing her hands a little.

    “Thank you… for everything.”

    Her smile got a little bigger and gentler, “Of course. What are friends for?”

    “If I could cry right now, I would!” Charon piped up finally. They looked to him. It was clear that the Charon was overjoyed. He was just as relieved that Gale didn’t push him away, even more so that it didn’t seem like his partner was going to fall back down into that dark place again.

    The two of them left the room and walked down the hall with lighter spirits and hearts. He was happy, and everyone noticed for the next few days. No one asked why, they were just glad to see him smiling again. He still needed to fix things with his old fire team, but for now he was content that his worst fears didn’t come to life, and his best friend was still beside him after all this time.


	3. A Conversation with a Spirit

I) Is it alright if I record this conversation?

T) Of course. It’s an honour to meet you Ikora Rey. I’m happy you’ve made time in your busy life to see me. You must be very curious about the world before your City.

I) Very. We’ve lost much in the Red War, including what little we knew.

T) Of course. I will give you whatever information I can, so long as you follow my conditions.

I) Yes. Alexander laid them out clearly to me. I am not to speak of this place so you are able to live in peace unless the situation is dire and we need your help, and I am to also pass on the teachings of your people that have been lost through time. I give my word that I will uphold both.

T) You are a woman of your word. His friend assured me of such.

I) I’ve done much to win back that friend’s favour, as he may have told you.

T) Of course. I also sense you are true. Now please, ask away, and I will do my best to answer you.

I) Can you please tell me what your life was like during the Golden Age?

T) I’m afraid I’m not the best example. Though I enjoyed the technology the Age brought, I spent most of my life away from the great cities and remained here in the Northern Wilderness. I am of Objiway descent, and I carried some of the more ancient traditions. I visited vast sprawling cities at one time however. There were buildings that towered above the ground, piercing the heavens like mountains, rails and aircraft as far as the eye could see, bright lights, noise, science, anything was possible in those days. People were comfortable, happy, but also getting carried away if you ask me. They looked to the stars, colonizing everything they could. I hear rumors of the Warminds, of SIVA. I always had been worried about that sort of thing. They worried: what’s out there hostile to us? I suppose well… they had reason to fear. They even made EXOs, and I heard of people disappearing and for strange robots to return. They called them War Machines, but clearly they are far more. Though at the time… that was the EXO’s purpose. For the most part, we stayed out of all of that. We preferred a quieter life.

I) So what kind of life did you lead?

T) One of nature I suppose you could say. This had always been my favourite lake, mostly because very few made the trek out here. I learned medicines, how to defend myself, and living off of the land along with stories. My intent was to simply live and find happiness, find a partner and settle down. That’s exactly what I did, until the darkness came of course…

I) So, this place has now become sacred.

T) I suppose you could say that, yes.

I) Tell me a little more about Alexander. Details you remember that might give us some hints.

T) *Laughs* Well, there’s much I can tell about the man he was, and still is. He was once a builder. Welding, construction, automotive, essentially a jack of all trades but master of none. He loved nature just as I did, so much so that he made the trek out here, just because he could. He always was like that: curious about the world. We met and well, I’ve never talked to someone for so long before. He was a very good listener, curious about the Objiway. Then the next week the crazy man came back for more. We became friends, then lovers. We made a cabin out here for us so we could raise our planned little happy family. Obviously it didn’t turn out that way.

I) Unfortunately no. I must ask however, what did happen?

T) I was as if the Great Spirit was coming down upon the world, angry and vengeful… no, not the Great Spirit. A dark force, one that contends with him and his messenger: the Traveler.

I) The Great Spirit?

T) I’m sorry, that is part of the Objiway beliefs. I forgot that could be a bit confusing. In our stories, the Great Spirit created the world. To you, he would be a source of Light. A pure force of Light. When the Traveler came, the Objiway and many of the other natives believe that he was a messenger, a vessel of sorts, returning to bless his creation once more. I still hold the belief that it is but an agent of a higher power. Whether or not that is my Great Spirit, or what you believe in, I suppose is up for debate.

I) There have been theories about that.

T) I suppose there would be. In any case, it was what many describe: the end of the world. It started with an unease, then reports of something… The Great Spirit only knows, coming towards the planet at a breakneck speed. The Traveler suddenly left its place on Io and came speeding back towards our Earth, possibly to protect itself. People began to panic. Many of them took the first vessel leaving our system. I’ve only heard disastrous reports. Many of them didn’t make the asteroid belt. Then governments began conscripting people… including Alexander. I don’t know much he’s told you.

I) He did say he was conscripted and went out to fight back. He told us how he became an EXO and the events leading up to his first death. He did not say how you died however… says it’s something he’d rather forget.

T) I suppose… considering the state of my body. I can assure you and him that I did not feel much when I died.

I) What exactly killed you? What descended upon the earth?

T) If I’m being perfectly honest Ikora Rey… I do not know. These beings are not like your Fallen, Vex, Hive, Cabal, or Taken. They were something new. These beings… they took many forms. Clearly they were agents of the darkness, twisted and cruel, but they morphed and changed shape like pure shadows. The skies turned black and morning would not come. It rained fire often or a back liquid that soured the land. Everything was beginning to die out, including mankind. When they invade my home, I simply could not fight them, and I died.

I) So how did you become what you are now?

T) That is another question I do not have an exact answer for. Dying for the first time is very strange, because I don’t remember it. I simply woke up underwater and I rose to the top. I looked at myself and down at my corpse at the bottom of the lake, and was able to decipher what happened, but much time had passed. I am however made of Light, perhaps a by product of the Traveler giving life to the Ghosts, or perhaps he wanted me around for a special purpose. I cannot say.

I) To be a guide perhaps?

T) Yes, I think that’s the best way to describe it. To be a guide for the lost.

I) I see. What’s it like being a spirit?

T) Like you, time has little meaning for me. Death means nothing, because I’m already dead. I have some power, but only enough to ward evil spirits away from this place. Even then, I am limited by my deceased body it seems. I can only go so far and be able to maintain my physical form. After that, I am nothing, just a concept, only able to whisper a few words in people’s ears.

I) Such as Alexander.

T) Yes. He did tell you how I found him?

I) He did.

T) Others spirits wander this world, but you must be careful. Some were born from the darkness instead of the Light. They dare not come here, but if your hunters go missing, or come back with delirious reports, or something strange happened while they were there, then it’s likely an evil spirit lies in wait there.

I) I understand. There have been more strange reports actually

T) It may be because the Traveler’s awakening has provoked spirits out of hiding. Though I fear this has good and bad implications. I’m sure things out there felt that pulse, and will come running. You must be prepared.

I) Of course… we all must be. Worst Case scenario, whatever caused the collapse might be coming.

T) If it is… Great spirit help us all. If night falls and a dawn never comes… I don’t know if we can fight it off again.


	4. Factions and Banners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cid helps 2 children figure out what is going on. By children I mean Alex and Ash. Sarah attempts to help children as well.

    As walls came back up and more of the city was rebuilt, more and more people returned, and with them came events that Alexander hadn’t been familiar with. They existed before of course, but he was training and after that he was too busy and didn’t really look into it. Now he could see the flags waving about, Guardians and people running around to different places of the rebuilt walls, and he honestly wasn’t sure what the fuss was about.

    “I don’t think I’ve seen the tower this alive since it fell.” He heard Ash comment as he sorted through his vault. He knew she had been there for a while, but decided to wait until the woman spoke first.

     He looked up and gave a nod, “Neither have I. I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what a Faction Rally is.” Even after finding he once had a voice, he decided to remain with the beeping for now. The procedure to give him a proper one was complex at best and impossible at worst. He was fine with being mute however. It didn’t impede him before, and it wouldn’t now.

    “Honestly, all I know is that I get good gear and shaders out of it.” Ash shrugged. She wasn’t in her Hunter uniform, so she clearly had no plans today. His original plan was to go back out to the EDZ to chat with Devrim, but the rally might have thrown a wrench into that. He wondered for a minute if Ash was cold in that tank top and short pants, but the he remembered that she was a Solar user, and if she wore anything else other than the uniform she would probably be dying of heat stroke. It was something he was getting used to as a new Solar user.

    “So we go to these leaders of factions and they… give us stuff?”

    “Oh no, you gotta work for it.” Ash stretched her arms over her head, “Gotta find shit for them, gotta run errands, go dungeon diving, fight in their name, or whatever. Honestly I never paid much attention to their stances and what they stand for, didn’t care.”

    “Why not?”

    “Crucible was pretty much my life before I met Sarah. But anyways, not that important. If you’re curious about it, we can ask Cid. He probably knows. He always seems to know things we don’t. I think he’s over chatting up Zavala.”

    Alexander raised a brow, but she was most likely right in her guess. He could sense him through the crowd near the spot where Zavala usually stood. He hoped it meant things were patched up between the two now.

    “Alright, give me a minute to finish this and we’ll head over.”

* * * *

    It had been a couple of days since he last talked to Zavala. Since people were now so busy with the first Faction Rally since the City fell, there weren’t a lot of people talking to the Titan right now. It was easy to slip through the crowd and walk up to the Commander who was overlooking the City. He found himself stopping short for a minute, thinking of how to start the conversation.

_Yes hello Zavala, sorry that me and my buddies got into a screaming match in your office. Great brain. That’s the best way to start that off…_

    “I know you’re there.” Zavala suddenly spoke up, “Speak your mind.”

    “Uh… hi?” Cid awkwardly glanced over to the side. Zavala turned around and seemed a bit surprised as who was talking to him.

    “Oh, it’s you.” Zavala had to look up a little to look the man in the eye, “…don’t take this the wrong way but you look… different. Better. Did something happen?”

     _Go with it_ , he told himself, “Sort of. Just… dodged a huge bullet the other day, we’ll say.”

    “I see.” Zavala motioned for him to stand beside him, “You had something to discuss?”

    “I did, actually.” Cid walked up to stand beside the Commander, leaning over to rest his forearms on the railing, “I’m… sorry about that whole mess in your office. We should’ve been taking about that elsewhere and not gotten you involved.”

    Zavala gave a small nod, “Apology accepted, so long as you don’t allow that to happen again.”

    “And sorry… for yelling at you as well about the mess on Titan.”

    Zavala raised a brow and looked at Cid like he had two heads. Did he just hear that right? As far as Zavala was concerned he was expecting a much worse repertoire from him about the whole thing. The only reason he didn’t get it was because he was too busy arguing with Edna.

    “Why?” was all Zavala could ask.

    “When Edna brought up the Thorn it got me thinking, you know? Didn’t I do the same damn thing? Made a huge mistake I could’ve prevented if I stopped and thought for five minutes that it might be a bad idea? Don’t get me wrong, still not impressed that you made a similar mistake that got people killed, but I can’t be too mad, since I did the same stupid thing.”

    Zavala shook his head, “What I did could’ve been prevented if I had thought about the Dreadnaught, and remembered how fast the Hive spreads. I was too desperate to get a hold of something to turn things around.”

    “And what I did could’ve been prevented if I saw how the canon got charged and didn’t think anything could happen to me. Still riding on the high of beating Oryx I suppose. Certainly know better now…”

    “The difference between you and I is that you were born not that long ago and learned that lesson. This lesson I should have learned a long time ago, in all of my experience. I’ve lived to see the Great Disaster and to be counting the days our walls still stood. I had the experience, yet I still did it anyways.”

   Cid gave a quiet nod, “Good to know you take responsibility just… you know… don’t go hating yourself. It doesn’t do anyone any good…”

    “Hm… hearing that coming from you…?”

    “What’s that supposed to me?” Cid raised a brow.

    Zavala managed a small smile, “Ah, nothing. I just can’t help but feel I’m finally seeing you coming back to life.”

    “Hey Cid!” the two of them turned around to see Ash and Alexander waving at him. He knew they were there earlier, but he was glad they at least waited until a decent time to jump in, “Can we borrow you for a bit?” Ash asked.

    “Yeah,” Cid stood up straight and looked at Zavala, “See you around Zavala. Try to take it easy.”

    Zavala laughed a little, “I’ll take it easy when I’m dead.”

     Cid shook his head a little with a smile before walking over to his friend’s and leaving the Titan alone. Alexander couldn’t help but smile seeing that they were on good terms again.

    “What did you two need?” Cid asked.

    “Alex here doesn’t know a lot about the factions and neither do I, so can you give us a history lesson? Or uh… politic lesson? I guess?” Ash asked shrugged at the ‘politic lesson.’

    “I can give you a run down, sure. Let’s head to the bazaar first.” Cid motioned over to his left. As they started walking down the hall he asked, “So how much do you guys know?”

    Ash and Alexander looked at each other before giving a shrug, “Next to nothing.” Ash replied.

    “Alright. Well, there used to be a lot more than three, but that was way before my time. They used to fight in the city to see who would gain control of the government until Guardians put their foot down. It then ended up turning into the Speaker, the Vanguard, and the Consensus. Many of the factions abolished, and we only have three left.”

    “And what do they do?”

    “Honestly? Vie for power, support causes, try to take over but fail miserably. Though with the shakeups in command during the Red War, who the hell knows what’s going to happen at this point. We’re going to see New Monarchy, which will sound promising until I get through explaining what they’re about.”

    “Monarchy? Isn’t that going backwards in terms of democracy?” Ghost translated for Alexander.

    “Yes, yes it is.”

    They walked past the temporary study Ikora set up for the Warlock’s and Hawthorne’s usual perch to a place where many people gathered. There in front of the railing was a man, standing on a wooden block so he could be seen as he made a speech to the guardians and civilians there.

    “That’s Hideo Kojima.” Cid pointed at him as they stood back, “He’s the faction representative. He says he’s done a lot of relief effort during the war, which I can believe since they’ve done it before. They’re having a lot of trouble I heard gaining new followers.”

    “Why’s that?” Alexander asked.

    “I think they’re getting sick of the whole ‘monarchy’ thing, especially with Hawthorne now being part of the Vanguard. She much rather the ‘for the people of the people’ view and others are starting to see it that way.”

    “So what do they stand for?” Ash asked with a raised brow, “Other than on a wooden block.”

    “Let’s see…. Traveler I can’t believe these are ingrained into my brain now.” He raised his hand off and counted on them as he spoke, “The seven tenants of New Monarchy are: To secure our walls from the enemies without; to secure the rights and liberties of every upstanding citizen; to sponsor the sciences of the City, and salvage the ruins beyond so that our Golden Age might be reborn; to support the Guardian Orders by leading the City in technological innovations; to support the natural harmony of the City, and to actively dissuade any group or individual that might disrupt that harmony; to hold all individuals, compacts, and alliances to the highest standards of productivity and right behavior…”

    “That doesn’t sound so bad…” Ghost translated, “In fact that sounds really good!”

    “It does, until I get to the last one. To, by vote of the Consensus, abolish the Consensus, and transfer ultimate power, in order that the rights and liberties of all citizens be secured, to a single sovereign of unimpeachable character.”

    “So… they want an autocratic dictatorship?” Alexander seemed very put off by that.

    “A what now?” Ash asked.

    “A king. Someone who has absolute power.” Ghost translated

    “And how bad could that be?”

    “If we can’t get rid of a person and he abuses his power, it can be really bad.”

    “That’s what murder is for.”

    Alexander stared at her for a moment, baffled by her answer.

    “What? If this were to supposively happen, you just murder the abuser in cold blood.”

    “What if it’s a Guardian though?” Cid asked.

    Ash was about to speak up then glanced over to the side, “…point taken. Ok, so what about the other two?”

    “Well get ready for a wild ride then, and a walk to the hangar. Dead Orbit is next.”

    “Oh yeah, those guys!” Ash seemed to perk up a little as she started walking beside Cid and Alexander, “I think I pledged to them a few times cause I liked their stuff. I wasn’t paying attention to his ranting about the Traveler being dead and all. Well he was definitely wrong on that one.”

    “To be perfectly honest, I kind of wondered if it was dead or not either for a while. I’m really glad I was wrong on that one considering it blew up ‘spirit Ghaul’ or whatever he was at that point.” Cid admitted.

    Once they were in the hangar they could hear Amanda and Cayde bickering back and forth about what modification to put on a ship. They could see the stairs leading up to a room for Future War Cult .

    “We’ll get to them last, since they’re a bit more of a mystery.” Cid explained as he walked past them and around the corner to where an Awoken was taking donations.

    “Oh yeah, I remember that guy. What was his name again?” Ash asked.

    “Arach Jalaal. I heard he’s changed things up a bit since the whole ‘dead God thing’ isn’t a thing anymore. They still believe though that we’re all doomed and we should be getting the hell out of our solar system.”

    “They do know that didn’t work out so well for the Golden Age people right? They heard of the Exodus Black?”

    “They’re aware, they just think it’s the only option, awakened Traveler or not. They’re also uh… doom and gloom all the time. They’re good people, I heard they back projects and take things no one wants anymore, but they’re also… iffy. A lot of black and white with nihilistic poetry and whatever. I never bought into this, never will. Fought for too long to give up, that’s for damn sure.”

    “So do they have a seven tentants?” Ghost translated.

    “Nope, only New Monarchy does. Dead Orbit has this… book thing. Book of Departure I think.”

    “Something like that. They gave me a copy, which I’m pretty sure I burned for kicks.” Ash shrugged, “But they have nice stuff for Hunters.”

    “So what about Future War Cult?” Ghost translated.

    Cid sighed, “I’ll do my best to explain, but a lot isn’t clear.” He started walking up towards the stairs, “Let’s start out with this: they’ve been around since the late Golden Age, just under a different name.”

    “Wait, these guys were around when I was alive and human?” Alexander raised a brow.

    “Yeah, they were. They were scientists. These days they’re lead by Lakshmi-2. They found a device from the Golden Age that apparently predicts the future… except it makes people go insane. Most people anyways. Apparently EXOs can handle it a bit better. The point is, they predict wars, prepare for wars, and are all about wars. They are secretive though, having inner circles and all that. They also say that they predicted the Red War…”

    “Of course they do now.” Ash rolled her eyes as they came to the top of the stairs.

    “I’m not actually kidding, I think they did. I remember Lakshmi going to Zavala and Ikora about the Cabal invading… no one listened of course, I sure didn’t. But it’s kind of freaky thinking back on it. Still, I don’t like the whole ‘always about war’ and there isn’t a science for prediction.”

    “You’ve been saying that for years.” A voice piped up from the other side of the room. The people in here were mostly chatting to themselves, but the EXO that sat in meditation had her eyes trailing on him, “Yet you admit we predicted the last war.”

    “Start predicting other wars, I might start thinking that there is.” Cid shook his head at her. It was becoming obvious to the other two that this was Lakshmi.

    “Predicting events is still a problem naturally, we still do not have an exact formula. Still, is it not wise to be preparing for the next war? You seem to be constantly wrapped up in it, one way or another.”

    “Seems to be a trait of mine.”

    Lakshmi laughed a little, “It truly does.”

    “Annnnnnd we are leaving. Future predictions too freaky for me.” Ash started to scoot out of the room. Alexander just gave a shrug and a wave to the EXO and followed. Lakshmi didn’t seem to mind, but it was hard to read her.

    “If you predict the next war, tell me. I’d like to kill the guy before he tries to become a God.” Cid raised a brow at her.

    She laughed a little, “I will try to tell you.”

    He gave her a respectful bow before walked out and down the stairs to the other two standing at the base.

    “Ok, now that I know all this, is there an option to get their stuff without pledging?” Ash asked.

    “You’d be stealing.” Cid raised a brow at her.

    “Damn it.” She pouted, “I only steal from people who deserve it.”

    “Right… anyways, you two have any more questions?”

    “Yeah, which one do you usually side with?” Ash asked with a raised brow.

    “Honestly, New Monarchy. They help people, and the likeliness of the consensus abolishing itself to have a monarch is slim to none. Also Hideo Kojima’s name reminds me of something… something called Metal Gear Solid? I have no idea why though.”

    “You just really like their stuff don’t you?”

    “That is also a factor, yes. Actually Alex they have this nice set for Titans that I think you’d like. You fit with the knightly style.”

    “Huh.” Alex folded his arms and raised his brows, “I might take a look into that.”

    “I’m sticking with Dead Orbit… might steal a FWC weapon though from some asshole that works for them. They have to have good stuff.” Ash smirked a little.

    “You… you do that…” Cid sighed.

* * * *

    Dead Orbit was the winner of the Faction Rally somehow. No one knows exactly how but it was the one time in his entire life that Cid saw Arach Jalaal smile. On the bright side, both he and Alexander managed to score some gear that they could use. Alexander looked much more like a knight now, and Cid managed to get some decent gauntlets and boots.

    The next week was rather normal, but rumor of Lord Saladin’s return started to circle in the tower. Those came to light when one day there was a set up o the upper tower, and the man himself was at the helm of it. Ash could hear Shaxx grumbling about the man, but she was very interested into what this Iron Banner was.

    “Every heard of the Iron Lords?” Sarah asked when Ash came up to her to ask her about it. She was finally back from the wilds, even if only for a while.

    “Sort of. The original Guardians right?” Ash asked.

    “You got it. Apparently this is like another crucible, but with the purpose of finding the best of the best.”

    “Is there good loot?”

    “Probably.”

    “Sign me the fuck up!” Ash grinned ear to ear, “Hey, maybe you should compete for a while, get out of the wilds and fight with me!”

    Sarah gave a small sigh, “…maybe if the stuff’s good.”

    “Why don’t we find out!” Ash tugged on her arm a little, “Come on! You’ve been away for a long time by yourself! Let’s have a bit of fun.”

    She rolled her eyes a little, “Alright.” She mumbled as she stood up, “Guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

    Ash practically dragged Sarah to the Courtyard at the tower. There were people bustling up to the second level to speak with Lord Saladin and to sign up for the Iron Banner. They could sense that their friends were somewhere out here too, but as soon as Sarah saw the huge bustling crowd she wanted nothing more than to retreat back into her room. If they wandered over she would talk to them, but otherwise she was getting out of the crowd as soon as she saw what the fuss was about.

    In front of a burning pit of fire and some strange metal emblem (Sarah sure as hell didn’t know what it was) the man stood himself. The ghost beside him was busy keeping track of people signing up for the Iron Banner and volunteer civilians were attempting to ease the chaos of Guardians running to and from this place. Sarah and Ash shuffled to the edge of the crowd and raised their brows seeing just what was the potential reward was for doing well. The gear was well plated, and even looked good to boot.

    “I really want that cloak.” Ash pointed to the Mantle of Efideet. It had beautiful golden marks on the back and fur around the collar of the hood. It looked so warm as well.

    “Well, you’ll have to earn it, like everyone else.” The deep voice suddenly spoke. They looked up to see the face of Lord Saladin himself who was eyeing them both. Beside him was a Grey Wolf, sitting there on guard, “Though from what I heard of your reputation, I don’t think that will be too much of a challenge for you.”

    “Me or her?” Sarah asked, pointing at Ash when she said ‘her.’

    “Both. Who hasn’t heard who took down the Almighty and Ghaul at this point? I also heard that you’re Shaxx’s little star.” He looked right at Ash.

     “I wouldn’t say star.” Ash looked over to the wolf. By now the crowd was finally beginning to thin out, “Is he friendly?”

    “Hmph! Hardly! He’s been trained to be a hunter. He can track down a man for miles at a time. He’s a predator, and the only one of my pack tame enough to come here. He’s no tamed puppy…”

    Suddenly the wolf perked up and ran off into the thinning crowd. When they turned to look, they could see it happily wagging its tail upon seeing Cid, who was with both Gale and Alexander and seemed to be intent on learning more about the Iron Banner. The EXO seemed to light right up as he knelt down to pet the wolf, who excitedly jumped up and down seeing the Warlock who gave him some love back at Felwinter, when he had the time to go there.

    Ash started grinning ear to ear as she looked back at Saladin. Sarah raised a brow at him, a smile ghosting her own lips.

    “You were saying?” Sarah asked.

    “He’s an exception.” Saladin grumbled.

    “Awwww!” They could hear Gale swooning over the overgrown child called a wolf, “He’s such a good boy!”

    “He is a good boy! You missed me buddy?” Cid asked with a grin on his face.

    Saladin sighed, “I’m glad to see you’re still in one piece. Not surprised you were involved in taking the Red Legion down.”

    “Glad to see you’re still around as well.” Cid commented as he stood up, “Any word from Shiro or Efideet?”

    “Both of them made it out alive.”

    “That’s good to hear.” He gave the wolf one last pat on the head, “I was starting to wonder.”

    “I’ve met your Hunter friends here, they’re interested in signing up. What about you? We could use someone to show these rookies the ropes.”

    “Rookies?” Sarah asked with a slight frown.

    Cid shook his head, “Maybe next round. Still trying to restore the libraries as best as we can.”

    “And you two?” He motioned to Gale and Alexander.

    “I’m afraid I also need to pass. I’m still helping the restoration effort as well.” Gale replied.

    “I’m opting out too. Zavala has me busy with things too.” Ghost translated for Alexander.

    “I see. Well, I hope next time you won’t have your hands full. I’d like to see how you all perform out there with my own eyes.” Saladin commented.

    “Well, those two can give you an idea.” Gale looked over to the hunters and smiled a little.

    “So I’ve heard.” Saladin turned to them, “So… do you have what it takes to compete in the Iron Banner?”

    “You bet I do!” Ash grinned, “I’m getting that cloak!”

    Sarah shrugged, “Why not? Be a change of pace from the wilds. Hope those Guardians know what’s coming to them.”

    The two turned out to be devastating out on the field. Ash did indeed get that cloak after the week was over along with the rest of the gear. She was grinning ear to ear, spinning around in her new outfit she adored. Sarah also managed to get the pieces, but still kept her ‘Cloak called Home’ instead of the Iron Banner one. The mask of an Angry Demon’s face was fitting, especially after she coloured the armor a deep red, white, and black.

    Saladin was impressed by ‘Little Miss Crucible’ he had to admit. Perhaps she could step side by side with the Iron Lords one day.


	5. Savathun's Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that Violence Warning? There should be a Gore warning, like, Bloodborne Levels of it. I wouldn't recommend if you're squeamish in any way.

    The rain never stopped here on Titan. Fitting, Gale supposed, as they looked into the entrance to the Archaeology. It was dark inside, leaking in water after being neglected from hundreds of years. Echoes of moans and Hive shrieks vaguely seemed to come out to their ears. As the wind blew back her robes it seemed to swirl and echo inside the maw of the decaying Archaeology. It wasn’t a place anyone wanted to be, that was for certain.

    This was a search and rescue mission they were told. Sarah and Ash were both occupied with something on Nessus, Alexander was staying with Sloane to learn about these missions, and there was no way they were taking Red on something like this. So the third member to Fireteam Caliban, as Sloane called it, ended up being one of the old fire team members: Edna. Gale could sense the friction still between Cid and her. They seemed to have patched things, but there was a sense all was not well between them, but they were setting their differences aside for this mission. Perhaps they felt the same sinking feeling Gale did, staring into the entrance.

    “Several Fireteams have gone missing. I want you to get in there and find out what happened. There’s no shame in turning around though.” Zavala had said to them.

    “I’m gonna say it, since no one else will, this has trap written all over it.” Edna twirled her knife as she spoke: a nervous habit Cid had picked up on over the years.

    “Believe me, this has ‘bad idea’ all over it too.” Cid added.

    Gale sighed, “We’ll have to be careful, but we shouldn’t stand here much longer.”

    “Lead on girl. I’ll watch our backsides.” Edna instructed.                                          

    This was the same path Alexander took when he was delving in after the CPU. He told them about the broken tiles they could slip through to get into the main visitor center. Gale took the lead with Cid close behind her, feeling only slightly more at ease with him there. Up onto the rotting platforms and into the darkness she decided to take the careful slow route. It was difficult she quickly found as the floor creaked and groaned beneath her feet. She could see as she turned the corner and looked past old control panels that the Hive were alert, looking for the source of the creaking noise. She looked behind her to make sure she was being followed before tossing a pulse grenade into the middle of the small crowd of acolytes. They had no chance to react before they were killed, and the patrolling Knight was gunned down by the Hunter and Warlock behind her. Stepping over their bodies they came to the tiles Alexander had mentioned and stepped into the overgrown center. It was still groaning out its welcome and facts over the speaker, but the air felt extremely stiff and suffocating now.

    “He wasn’t kidding. This place is a mess. Where do we even start?” Gale asked as she looked over to the right and at all of the overgrown vegetation.

    Edna looked the other way and raised a brow behind her mask. “We could look where those weird locks are?” she suggested and pointed at an entrance to the left. They could see large runes attached to chains barring over a door.

    “The Hive locking modern doors?” Cid mumbled as he walked up to it, “The hell are they doing down there?”

    “I get the slight implication that it’s not having a party with balloons and cake.” Edna replied.

    “Would make this a lot easier.”

    “Maybe one day we’ll walk in and it’ll be that kind of party, not the murdery kind they like.”

     Charon manifested and started to work away at opening the locks. Almost right on cue they heard the shrieks and growls of the Hive. The three of them turned around to see wizards ripping holes through space and manifesting their knights and underlings to meet with the three Guardians.

_Here we go again._ Edna thought to herself as she raised her gun to the army racing towards them. She was a Nightstalker, but unlike Sarah, she wasn’t afraid to use her light a bit more extensively.  She tossed a void grenade into the pile of Thralls who fell down the instant they came in touch with it. She could see out of the corner of her eye a solar grenade flying out into the crowd to cut the numbers down a little more. Like many Hunters, she was well versed in handcanons and side arms, choosing them as her weapon of choice. She even had her own named gun: Harvey, a side arm with a rabbit charm attached to the hilt. She heard rabbits were supposed to be lucky, and for some reason she felt very familiar with them.

    She could feel the solar and arc around her. She had to admit she didn’t know how Warlocks were so easily able to bend their light around them as they fought. She never got used to Darin and Cid throwing around Void like a play toy, and when Cid switched to solar it became even more chaotic. Now there was Arc, and when she rolled over close to Gale she could feel how it tingled in the air as she threw down a healing rift for everyone to use. The small sprites she summoned shot at the thinning crowd. She looked over at the Warlock, remembering their conversation.

     _“Can I talk to you for a minute?”_

_“Ah, um, of course! You must be Edna right?”_

   The last witch died, and Charon happily chirped that he got the locks open. He sped right back to Cid as they whirled around to face whatever was coming next. As soon as the door opened, Gale threw a pulse grenade into the Thralls waiting for them.

    _“Yeah, that’s me. Listen uh… I need a favour.”_

_“A favour? From me?”_

_“It won’t be hard for you. You’re already doing it in a way.”_

    They ran closer and the inner door opened to a very angry looking Cyclops and two other Wizards that shrieked at them. They were met it a void arrow to the face and waves of fire crashing into all of them. Edna remembered a time where it would be a huge ball of void energy chasing after the fools who dared to get in their way.

     _“What do you mean by ‘already doing it’?”_

_“Look, I just get this funny feeling about this mission ok? I can tell you’re also kinda on edge.”_

_“I…yes. Funny, I actually had a nightmare before Zavala contacted us.”_

_“Nightmare?”_

    Running into the room and through another door way there were more Hive who were less than happy about them being there. Whatever they were interrupting, it had to be important as echoes of the wizards shrieking at each other roamed through the building. The place itself didn’t seem to be infected with the Hive gunk (yet) but it showed its decay in other ways. The water damage was apparent everywhere, the screens were mostly broken or showing an age old evacuation plan that likely never came to be, and of course the scent of stagnant water was everywhere.

    “Fireteam Caliban what’s your status?” Zavala suddenly piped up through the radio as they ran. Charon had decided to stay out of transmat to better pick up signals.

    “We’re in. They’re doing something big here. They locked the door into here and they are less happy than usual to see us.” Cid replied.

    “Alexander and I have been digging into this behaviour… and it’s not good.” Sloane sighed out the last part.

    “Death experiments.” Ghost piped up then started to tranalate, “Look guys, I know you have to see if there’s anyone alive in there, but don’t be afraid to turn around and get out. I want….stay…”

    “We’ll be ok Alex…” Gale replied. She could hear the static at the end though, and more static through the radio as they tried to contact them. Whatever the Hive were doing down there was messing with the feeds, and the command was now blind and deaf to fireteam Caliban.

    They turned the corner to dispatch more Hive who were shrieking bloody murder. Charon perked up a bit as he found a new signal in these depths and started to play it for them in the middle of the gun fight.

    “Get away from me!” someone bellowed, “I won’t let you… turn…!” the last part was starting to get lost in static, but it sounded like they found their first Guardian.

    “Time to pick up the pace!” Edna yelled as they rushed in the next room. Hive swarmed the opened hall, all chattering and screaming at each other. Somewhere in the midst they could hear something that wasn’t a Hive member screaming, but it was so distant they weren’t sure they heard it at first. Gale brought forth a Stormtrance to clear out all of smaller Hive swarming the ground while Edna and Cid shot at the wizards flying about, racing towards the sound.

_“I dreamed there were bodies lying on the ground. All of them had dead ghosts by their side.”_

_“Well that’s not cryptic at all.”_

_“Perhaps I’m just stressed…”_

_“Or you’re seeing visions.”_

_“Visions?”_

    Following the Warlock they could see a small pedestal that was clearly Hive made in the middle of the room. It housed a small ball made of void light, which was very odd. The Hive didn’t use the light. What was it doing in there? What was this pedestal doing here?

    Cid leaped up to it and grabbed hold it, confirming what he thought it was. In the midst of all of the raw chaos around him he didn’t have much time to really think as to how this came about, but it had some disturbing implications. He could see a Shrieker a little further up ahead being shielded by several wizards. They seemed to be gaining their power from a rune, and he was willing to bet that adding this void power would easily overload it.

    He ran forward, sliding beneath the sudden flurry of magic aimed right at him. His wings pushed him back onto his feet as he got close and up into the air a little. He slammed the void orb into the rune and the resulting explosion knocked him back and sent him sliding across the floor.

     _“What else did you see?”_

_“W-Well… there was… don’t judge, my teddy bear sitting on pedestal. There was also a stuffed rabbit on another one, both highlighted like I had to choose.”_

    “What in the bloody hell was that?” Edna asked once the last hive member was dead and they had a moment to breathe.

    “Void light…” Cid mumbled as he got back on his feet, “They’re using Void light for something….”

    “What?” Gale shook her head, “How is that possible?”

    “…start looking for a body. I got a funny feeling…” Edna started to walk around, shifting the corpses of the Hive with her boot, looking for one that stood out. The other two started to do the same thing. A moment later, Gale’s foot found a heavier body, and when she looked down she let out a yelp. On the ground was a dead Guardian. His helmet was cracked open and he could see his eyes starting off into the distance, not blinking. She could see blood was very slowly dripping out of a gaping chest wound. It was almost as if someone had punched a hole straight through him and ripped his heart out. As she took a step back from the corpse her foot found something else. When she looked again, she could see the remains of a ghost shell that had been completely crushed that was stained with its Guardian’s blood.

    “Did you find our guy?” Edna asked quietly as she and Cid walked over to meet her. She gave a silent nod. She heard Cid let out a sigh and a curse under his breath. Gale had also clued into what was happening down here in the depths. It was very likely they weren’t going to find anyone left alive down here.

    “If they’re taking a chance and using void light to power this, they must be doing something big.” Cid looked up to the glass to the waters outside. Gale could see his hand twitching, but she wasn’t sure if it was out of anger, or fear. Perhaps it was both.

    “Even if there isn’t anyone alive down here, we should see if we can smash this ritual before they summon forth a huge problem.” Edna added.

    “I know.” He turned to the next door, “I’m not going to lie though… I have a really bad feeling about this.”

_“What did you choose?”_

_“My teddy bear. As soon as I picked it up though I watched the rabbit suddenly shred to pieces.”_

_“…it really sounds like a vision.”_

_“Come again?”_

_“D-Don’t worry about it. Anyways, getting back to my favour…”_

    They opened the door to what was probably once an elevator, but now a huge hole in the floor. They leaped down and came to a hive rune in the shape of a pillar, capping off their ritual below. They could see how it pulsed with the light of the Void, holding strong and blocking their way from getting any deeper.

    “Can… hear…hello?” static came out of the radio. They all turned to Charon who had perked up a little.

    “Hello? Is anyone there?” Gale asked.

    “Yes! …barely…you…”

    “Someone’s alive down here? That’s a damn miracle!” Edna remarked. They heard a crash behind them, and when they turned around they saw a Knight barrelling towards them. They ran into where he came from and found themselves taken aback. The small room was full of solid crystals made out of void light with Hive material holding it in place. They could see ghosts lying on the ground next to them, and the bodies of the guardians were stuffed into a corner. Gale counted six in total.

    “Holy fuck…” Edna muttered as she looked at the carnage in the room. Cid looked down to the floor and could see bloody skid marks to where the bodies had been dragged. It was still a bit tacky and stuck to his boots, when meant they died not too long ago. He then looked up and noticed that their path was blocked by one of those Hive force fields, and not the kind that bullets could take down. He had a good idea what was keeping it there as well.

    “We have to destroy these.” Cid told them, “I know it’s grim, but we don’t have much of a choice.”

    “It’s not like the poor bastards are gonna come back from this anyways.” Edna sighed as she took aim at one, “Least this way the Hive can’t toy with them anymore.”

_“If it’s to talk to him for you…”_

_“Nah, I ain’t gonna ask that. I fucked that up bad, I’ll fix it. But it is about him.”_

_“Then…what is it?”_

    The barrier went down once the last crystal was shattered. The sound of the Hive screeching echoed through the halls as they walked out and were spotted. Knights, Wizards, and even a Cyclops was there and was furious with the intervention of these Guardians. The three of them found themselves taking a deep breath before firing off into the crowd. Their bullets shredded through the smaller problems, but they found themselves ducking behind cover as the flurry of bullets all through the room.

    “Unknown fireteam, do you copy?” the girl asked through the radio.

    “We copy, are there others with you?” Gale replied as Cid came out of cover to shoot some wizards. His poor Ghost wasn’t used to being out in the middle of a firefight and was shaking a little.

    “No, just me and my Ghost. The name’s Taeko-3, and you?”

    “Gale, Cid, and Edna.”

    “Whoa, tower brought the best to bail us out. Good thing too.”

_No kidding._  Gale thought to herself as it was her turn to pop out of over and fire upon their foes. Slowly they carved their way through the hall, ripping apart the Hive slowly but surely. When the fighting finally died down, Taeko spoke up again.

    “There were so many of us. I watched them one by one get killed and funnelled into those crystals….”

    “I’m so sorry. It must’ve been awful.” Gale replied gently.

    “I’m a lot more worried about you three. I don’t want that happening to you.”

    “Trust me, it won’t. I’ll kill myself before I let the Hive mess with these two.” Edna replied. Cid found himself taken slightly aback. It wasn’t the sentence itself, but the dead seriousness in her voice.

    The next room was full of those crystals. They looked at each other before shattering each one with a sense of grim. They knew there was no choice, but it wasn’t a pleasant job considering that they were once living breathing Guardians.

_“Look I just get this… bad feeling, ya know? And you’ve been real good. We’ve been real shit friends lately, I know that. I just get this feeling I won’t be around long enough to fix things.”_

_“What do you mean…?”_

_“I could be wrong of course. But if I’m not wrong… I need you to do one really important thing for me.”_

    They were going in a circle, they could tell. The Hive were trying to wear them down through sheer numbers as they were swarmed through the hallways. All the while they had a nagging question as to how they were going to find the missing EXO and stop the Hive ritual. It was by no means an easy task.

    “Edna… what did you mean by that?” Cid asked her when they slid behind cover. Gale had found a different place to hide and was busy holding her own.

    “By what?” she asked as she shot over the wall.

    “The Hive messing with us.”

    “What I said. Rather kill myself than let those fuckers mess with you again. I mean that in a lot of ways.” She ducked back down under cover, “Look, I know I’ve been shit lately, and I really shouldn’t have used the Thorn as an argument. Didn’t mean it. You probably hate me right now, but I still give a damn what happens to you and your new girl friend.”

    “She’s not… ugh.” It was now his turn to shoot over the wall.

    Edna laughed a little, “She’s more than just a friend though, I can tell. Might not be romantic, maybe never will be, but any idiot paying attention would see that you love her. She’s good for you… and I’m glad. You needed someone like that for a long time.”

    There was an explosion in the background of another Shrieker falling to pieces. Gale had thrown her grenade into the crowd and it was helping to thin their numbers.

    Cid found himself smiling a little, “That’s not a bad way of putting it.”

    “Platonic life partners is a thing.”

    “I suppose it is.”

    “If we make it out of here alive, I’ll take you out for food or something, whatever you want. Least I can do for being a dick.”

    “We’re getting out of this alive.” He sternly replied, “And what we’re doing is talking.”

    Edna smiled a bit behind her mask.  _At least you sound sure._

    When they could finally come out of over, Gale seemed to have straightened up a bit. She waved them over and started running towards the next opening.

    “I have an idea but it’s grim. Remember how you overloaded the Shrieker?” Gale asked.

    “I think I know where you’re going with this. Whatever they’re summoning down there, we kill it by overloading the ritual?” Edna asked.

    “Exactly.”

    “Well it’s better than nothing.”

    “Well that’d be a great idea, if there were any crystals down here.” Taeko spoke up.

    Through the entrance they could see they had indeed gone in a circle. They were right back at the cap in the ritual. There were three wizards surrounding it. Once they shot one, the other got back up and started shrieking at them. Surprisingly, they retreated from their post. That was odd behaviour. With their retreat, the cap dissolved into nothing, and they were given a way down. Edna suddenly felt her guts twisting about as she looked at Gale.

_“Gale, please do us all a favour and take care of Cid ok? The Thorn messed him up bad, and I don’t want him hating himself for the rest of his life. I don’t want him falling down into that dark place again, or worse.”_

    They jumped down into the darkness, their ghosts coming out to light the way. The tight halls were full of Hive gunk and sand. They could see two more bodies tucked into a corner, but no crystal in sight.

    “Wait, never mind guys. I know how to make this work.” Taeko spoke up.

    “How?” Gale asked.

    “Embrace the Praxic Fire.”

    There was silence for a second before Cid seemed to come to a realization. He suddenly ran off ahead through the tight dark tunnels and stopped when he came to a wide open room. The air here was suffocating and heavy, the Hive’s work was everywhere in here along with the constant dripping of water. In the distance there was nothing but darkness with a slight mist swirls about it. There in the middle of the room, sitting dormant in the air, was the largest Shrieker he had ever seen. Right below it was a crystal and the body of a Warlock lying sprawled out next to her dead ghost.

    “…fuck…” Edna sighed once she caught up and also realized what happened.

    “Poor girl…” Gale mumbled.

    Cid heaved out a small sigh, “I hoped she didn’t mean that… but…”

_Well, you’ve certainly made a mess._

    Everyone stiffened up at the sound of that voice. Gale started to look for the source, but stopped when she saw Cid trembling. No, he was shaking, hearing that voice.

    “Cid?” she asked, gently grabbing his arm.

    Edna started looking around, “Hey! Show yourself!”

_Patience really isn’t your strong suit. In a moment my dear, don’t worry. Though really considering how you’ve messed things up and set us back, I don’t really have to show myself. Certainly don’t feel obligated to._

    “You… are you…? Cid managed to ask, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

_Hehehehe… I’m glad you remember me. I shouldn’t be surprised that you had a hand in destroying a lot of hard work._

    There was a sound, and then her laughter. They looked up to the top of the Shrieker to see her sitting right on top with her trademark smile. As Gale looked up as he she noticed something: this wizard had to be old. For one thing, she was a Hive wizard, and she had legs. Wizards float, they had no need for legs, yet here she was crossing one over the other. She retained 3 eyes as well.

    Cid took a step back. Seeing her again with that wicked smile sent a bolt of fear through him. She slid off of her perch and gracefully floated to the ground. Strangely, the witch did a grand bow towards them, looking up with a sickly sweet smile.

_I’m glad you survived that foolish Cabal’s war my dear. He caused quite the mess, didn’t he?_ She straightened up.  _I never did get the chance to tell you my name Cid, and I see you have friends. I am Xyer. I won’t bore you with my many titles, but you’d know me best from the Thorn._

    As soon as she mentioned the Thorn, Edna opened fire on the witch. The bullets hit a white barrier and seemed to bounce harmlessly off. It surrounded both her and the Shrieker, making sure they couldn’t just get behind her and cause trouble.

     _Well that was rude, though I guess I should expect that. Guess I did._

    “The fuck are you doing here?!” Edna roared at her. Gale had let go of his arm and was now standing a bit in front of him.

     _Goodness, quite the mouth on you. As for what I’m doing here, I was supervising Kio’s operation to bring this lovely Shrieker to life, until you ruined it. I’m glad I wasn’t in charge of this one, because she’s going to pay dearly for failure. I wasn’t going to drop in and say hi, but well…_ The witch frowned at them.  _You really did put us back quite a bit._

   “Yeah and we’re  **real**  sorry about that.” Edna rolled her shoulders, “Now you can either get out of way or we’ll kill you.”

    She let out a small laugh.  _You really think you can kill me? Besides, this is a reunion!_  She seemed to light right up, looking right at Cid with a childish smile _. I haven’t heard or seen him in a long time. It’s like seeing an old friend. Relax, I’m not going to kill him, I just want to talk!_

    “Back off!” Gale hissed. Arc energy was starting to flow through her and made itself visible through her body.

_Hoh? That’s new. You seem to have a bit of bite. Cute. Well, if both of you are going to be like that…_

     She raised her hands up, narrowing her eyes slightly in concentration. Her smile also faded as a darkness swirled in both hands. Suddenly Gale felt like there was a hand grabbing her collar and lifting her up. She felt her feet lift off of the ground and started to kick and cry out in response.

     “Gale!” Cid shouted as he seemed to get his bearings. He reached over, wrapping his arms around her waist and trying to pull her down. Suddenly he felt himself lifted up and thrown away, slamming into the wall. He felt pain spreading across the back of his head, back, and could see the HUD and visual in his helmet glitching. With a growl he reached up and ripped off his helmet. He looked and his eyes widened in horror seeing both girls suspended in the air, kicking and struggling to get down. They were just far away enough that they couldn’t do anything to witch who was now floating in the air again.

    _Not so brave now, are we?_  Xyer smiled. She then made a gesture in both hands and their mask and helmet both came off and hit the ground so she could see their faces. Their guns hit the ground as well, leaving them both helpless in the air.

    “Stop it!” Cid shouted as he ran close, “Leave them alone! Put them down!”

     _If I do that, they won’t let me talk to you_. She looked over to Edna, who was kicking and snarling at the witch. When she turned to Gale though, it was quite a different story. She floated over to Gale who was squirming and trying to grab the invisible hand holding her up. She was terrified, and the witch could see how the girl trembled and whimpered.

    _How precious… what a wonderful face._ Xyer reached over and brushed her hand against Gale’s cheek.  _Poor girl, you’re out of your league aren’t you. What a lovely body though. Very cute… I could just break **every bone**  in it…_ As she spoke, that hand brushed over Gale’s arms, chest, backside, legs, making her squirm and cry out more.

    “Fuck off!” Cid bellowed up at her. He tried to shoot his way through the barrier, even bash his shoulder into it, but it wouldn’t budge. Traces of fire seemed to start forming as anger replaced his fear, “Leave her alone damn it! Get down here and talk to me this instant if you want to so bad!”

    A laugh left her.  _There it is… there’s that fire. I was waiting for that._

    “Bitch…” Edna hissed as the woman came back down to ground level and left poor Gale alone.

     _Tell me my dear, what do you think this is?_ Xyer motioned behind her.

    “A Shrieker” Cid glared back at her, “A way for you to see into this world without leaving the Sword world. Considering its size, this is a powerful individual.”

_You’re good. Do you know who this is?_

    “No.”

_I supposed not. It belongs to Savathun, the cunning sister of Oryx: a Goddess of his caliber, maybe even higher._

    “I’ll take it as she’s not too happy we offed her brother.”

_You’d be right in that assumption. Though you pretty well destroyed our first attempt at seeing into this place, as even if I kill you now, one crystal won’t be enough to power this for long. You’re only delaying the inevitable though. She is on the march to come here._

   “We struck down Oryx, why does she think she’ll be any different?”

_Did you know once upon a time, Oryx killed her and Xivu Arath purposely? I don’t mean temporarily like in this world, but in the sword world. They were both true deaths. Why? He needed to feed his worm just long enough to return to the Worm Gods. From them he took their power, and made… ah what do you call them?_

    “Taken.”

_Wow, you’re bad with names. Not the point though. The point is he then waged war against a race much like your own. After a 100 years of war, the Warrior Xivu Arath was brought back from the dead. ‘I am Xivu Arath. I am a Goddess of War, and you have brought me back with War.’ In 40 years, he made the race believe he was at war with his sister, and would cut a deal with them. All who came to him were slaughtered, and from the ashes rose Savathun who laughed at how fitting it was. ‘I am Savathun. I am a Goddess of Trickery, and you’ve brought me back with trickery.’ So now that Savathun has followed the steps of her brother, become the new Queen, and will lead a voyage into this solar system as a navigator and take her vengeance, what do you think is going to happen?_

    Cid clenched his jaw as his hand balled up into a fist, “She’s going to bring him back.”

_Yes, and she doesn’t even need to come to your precious home planet. By leading the way this time on this campaign and with enough magic as her disposal, Oryx will return. There’s no Awoken Army to save you this time. There will be no Hive ship to allow you inside. This is your end. Death is coming._

    “If death is coming and unavoidable, why haven’t you killed us? Are you trying to toy with us first?”

_Kill you?_  The witch laughed a little.  _No, no, no! You are much more valuable alive! Surely it is taking a gamble to leave you alive, I know what you’re capable of, but for what’s to come? No, it’s much better if you remain alive. I have plans! Big plans! You won’t like them, you never do._

    “Never have, never will.”

_Besides my dear…_  Xyer took a step closer and reached through the barrier to touch his face. He naturally jerked away and the witch seemed a bit disappointed.  _I can’t help but admire your handiwork. Those flames had been painful back then, but so beautiful. It was a wonderful lesson. It was a lesson in the power of Light that we once thought so frail._

    “Nothing is weak when it’s backed into a corner and forced to fight.”

     _Like a krill who must make a deal to live_

    “Like a God who ran out of options.”

_The Traveler you mean? It truly did._  She smiled a closed her eyes a little.  _It’s been a long time since I’ve had a conversation like this, I must say. I really am growing a fondness for you._

    “That’s a tragedy.”

    She opened her eyes and tilted her head.  _Why do you say that?_

    “Because I’m going to kill you.”

    She started to grin ear to ear. A laugh came out of her throat, one he was very familiar with.

     _GOOD!_  She raised her arms up and he could feel the power she was radiating. Even though she still had his two friends suspended in the air and that barrier up, she still had magic to spare.  _I was hoping for that spark! I’m afraid we can’t fight today, but I was hoping to teach you a lesson in return. This is how we Hive show our love, by teaching honest and brutal lessons. I hoped to also give you a small taste of what’s to come!_

    His hands were glowing a little as hints of Sol radiated off of him. He had a feeling where this was going and he didn’t like it, “Put them down Xyer…!”

_I’m not going to kill both of them, relax. But I do want to know which one is the weaker one. Which one do you value less? Because I’m going to kill off the weaker one. There will be no weakness when ritual comes. I want to see a beautiful war break out when my Goddess comes!_

    “You’re seriously going to make him choose who to kill?!” Edna shouted at her. She looked down at Cid’s face which had gone from a glare to absolutely horrified.

_I prefer, which one he’s going to save? Will it be you? What have you done to help him? What sort of powers do you have?_  The witch then looked to Gale who was shaking her head and trying to struggle her way out.  _Or will it be her? This cute little girl who trembles before me. I don’t see how he would choose her. What a weak, terrified, pathetic little thing…_

    “SHUT UP!” Cid roared back at her, “She’s none of those things you fucking witch!”

     _Oh really?_  Xyer floated back over to Gale.  _Cause she really is cute. I could just **pinch**  her little  **head** off…_

    Gale gritted her teeth, trying to put on a brave face. When Xyer reached over to her face again she forced some Arc energy through her body, sparking and nearly catching the witch. The only reason she was electrocuted right there was because she was fast enough to create some space. The act however seemed to impress Xyer.

_Hoh? You’re also full of surprises, aren’t you? I like that._

    “Stop this! Stop this now!” Gale shouted at her.

_In case you haven’t noticed my dear, you’re in no position to be bargaining with me. What you should be doing is making the case to him for your life._

    “I’m not choosing!” Cid yelled back up at her.

_Are they both weak then? I could just kill them both!_

    “No! No! Don’t hurt them!”

_I have to hurt at least one to demonstrate this for you. So who will I Cid? Who will I hurt? Who will I kill?_

    “Me!” He motioned to himself, clearly trying to avoid making a choice. He much rather go back through hell than allow one of them to experience it. “Not them!”

    “Cid! No!” Gale shouted.

_I’m sorry, you’re not a choice! I love you too much to hurt you right now!_

    Her voice was incredibly loud now and he could feel the magic starting to rush all around him. He felt his guts twist about as their lives dangled out of his reach. Clearly the easy way out of this decision wasn’t available. He tried to think of any way he could get past that barrier and get to both of them and perhaps cut down that witch, but he was drawing blanks. There seemed to be no external power he could cut, and he was just going to break his shoulder trying to charge into it.

_Come now! Is it truly such a hard decision? Cut the weak ones out! Leave the strong ones!_

    “Maybe that’s how you do things, but we don’t!” Cid yelled back up at her.

_It’s survival of the fittest my dear. Now choose! You know these two far better than I do! Are you so weak that you cannot choose whose life is more valuable?! Now! Now! Now! Choose!_

    Edna looked back at Cid who took another step away. He was looking between both of them, clearly scared out of his wits. There really was no way out of this situation though. They knew that. Edna was starting to understand Gale’s dream now. The bodies lining the floor, the teddy bear and the rabbit… it was a vision of this moment, except it was not Gale being forced to choose, but Cid. It was obvious he didn’t want to. He was scared to. He didn’t want either of them to die.

    “Just let them go damn it!” Cid yelled back up at her.

_You really still think there’s any way out of this? You have one minute my dear, or I’ll simply kill them both!_  The witch seemed to be enjoying this, watching him squirm beneath the weight of this choice.

    “No! J-Just…! Give me a minute to think…!”

_I am giving you one my dear._

    Edna clenched her jaw. The answer here was obvious who should be saved. Gale was far more valuable with her visions, even if she didn’t realize she had them yet. She also understood Cid better than anyone else and was a Stormcaller. The vision also had Gale choose the teddy bear, and the other one being ripped to shreds. Edna also said that she would rather kill herself than let the Hive mess with him, and meant it. She knew how guilty he was going to feel regardless of his choice. If he saved one, the other was going to die. She knew how he would beat himself up over this cruel decision.

    So she wasn’t going to give him a choice. She would make it for him. He would still blame himself, but this way it was guaranteed that Gale would live, and perhaps this way it would be easier to convince him he wasn’t at fault.

    She reached down to her belt to see if she could find anything the witch hadn’t forced off of her person. She found her knife still in the holster. Her plan was to anger the witch, and make Xyer choose her. She seemed to be the type to easily lose it when things weren’t going her way, and Edna hoped she was right.

    She pulled the knife out and aimed it right at Xyer’s head. With no warning, she threw it right at her and it impaled itself in her horn. Xyer let out a screech as she lost concentration for a moment. Both girls were released and hit the ground. The barrier went down, and Cid immediately took the chance to spread his wings and rush her.

    _IMPUDENT LITTLE…!_  Xyer screeched as she whirled around to Edna. She was barely able to turn in time to see Cid with his sword. It met with a much smaller shield around her body, but no less powerful. Still, it was clear she struggled a little beneath the force he put on it.

_I see you haven’t lost your touch! You planned that, didn’t you? Well…! I think I know your decision!_

   “I didn’t…!” Cid started to protest, but he felt himself suddenly being grabbed and thrown back away from her, slamming into the ground. He looked up in time to see Gale being thrown right beside him and watched the barrier return around her and Shrieker. They both stood up and watched in horror as Edna was lifted right back up into the air. Xyer came to her level, snarling at she ripped the knife out of her horn.

    “Heh, didn’t like that, did ya?” Edna asked with a smile. At this point, she accepted her death, and found herself putting on a brave face.

_You have no idea what you’ve chosen, and just for that, I’m not going to make this quick._

    Xyer raised a hand, darkness swirling around it as she seemed to pull on something. To Edna’s horror she watched her ghost being dragged right out of transmat, and no matter what it did, it couldn’t get free.

    “H-Hey! That wasn’t part of this! Leave her alone!” Edna shouted, losing the brave face in just a second.

_Having a knife thrown at me wasn’t part of this. Besides, the only way to make sure you stay dead is taking care of this little problem._

    “Stop it! Let them go!” Gale shouted up at her as Cid tried to bash his way through the barrier again with no luck.

_I don’t think I will._  She cupped the trembling ghost in her hands.  _I need to teach at least one lesson today after all. Isn’t she sweet though?_  Xyer turned to the two Guardians on the ground.  _Cute little thing, so precious… yet so **frail.**_

    She then started to squeeze the shell of the ghost. It let out one final cry for help before being crushed in Xyer’s hands. She then dropped what was left onto the ground where it crumbled into tiny pieces. Gale covered her mouth with her hands seeing the poor thing being crushed to death, watching all of the light being pulled into the witch’s body to feed her worm. Cid only got angrier.

    “I’m going to kill you. I swear to the Traveler I’m going to fucking kill you!” Cid snarled. He summoned his sword again and tried to force it to go through the shield, but all it did was bounce right off.

_That’s the spirit! Now for my next trick, I’m going to make this girl regret the day she was ever born! Oh and save your strength my dear. You’re not getting through that._

    She raised her hand up again, bringing Edna closer to her. The woman struggled of course, but the witch only smiled at the sight. She did promise she would not make this fast, and already knew how to bleed her out while making a show for the other two.

_I hope you’ve said your prayers._

    “Yeah, I pray that you die in the most painful way possible.” Edna hissed.

_Hm, cheeky._

    She then thrust her hand into the woman’s abdomen. Edna let out a sound, but it was nothing compared to the sound of her entrails suddenly being ripped out. The sound of flesh squishing and ripping apart, the scream that followed before the woman started to throw up blood. The ghastly sight of her intestines hanging out of her body made Gale shake as nausea and horror came over her. She had seen things as a nurse, but this…. this was…

    The witch reached back one more time, and instead forced her hand into Edna’s chest. The sounds of her ribs and sternum breaking echoed in their ears. She ripped the woman’s heart right out and crushed it, sending blood spattering everywhere. The last part came when that little orb of light started to detach itself from Edna. The witch grabbed hold of it, and stated to sap the rest of her light out of her body. She then seemed to add a little of her own power into the mix, crystallizing it, and forming those same void crystals they had been seeing all along. She let the body fall gracelessly to the ground, her face forever filled with horror. Gale found herself hitting the ground, dry heaving at the sight of all of that blood and viscera.

_You see now? This is what’s coming._

   Cid didn’t give an answer. He seemed to have completely mentally shut down. She took advantage and came to the ground, stepping out of the barrier and raising a hand to the side his face, smearing blood onto it. She could feel how he trembled before her and heard his breathy sounds. He was looking right at her yet couldn’t move away.  She then drew a line in reality and slipped the crystal to the other side for later. He didn’t seem to react as she drew it shut.

_Come my dear, this isn’t even the worst it could’ve been. You’ll see much worse, you’ll feel much worse. But don’t worry._  She leaned up a little to his ear.  _When the time comes, you won’t feel anything anymore, because you’ll be mine. I need your light for my experiment. It will greatly benefit you, trust me. And that girl back there will be the first one you stop caring about._

    That had been a mistake. The mention of Gale seemed to snap him out of it and come back to reality. Suddenly the witch felt herself being forced back and into the ground by a swirling of Sol around his body. She looked up and saw him coming right at her and barely managed to roll out of the way. She took to the air, but he was right on her heels, sending waves of fire at her. She was able to shield herself, but once again found herself under strain. He then flew up and met her magic with his sword.

    “I’ll kill you… even if it takes every last bit of Light I have, I will fucking kill you!”

_Hehehehehehe…. I look forward to seeing what that looks like. But now’s not the time._

    She forced him back away from her and into the ground again. Gale seemed to have gotten a hold of herself and ran over to help him back on his feet.

_For now! This is goodbye Cid! The next time we meet, I’ll show you what I mean. Perhaps even your little friend there too!_

   Her laughter echoed through the room as she tore open a hole in reality and slipped away, sealing it behind her. Gale and Cid stood there for a moment in complete silence, both of them feeling exhausted and weak. It was finally interrupted when Gale looked over at what remained of Edna, and started to weep.

   “I’m sorry…” she whimpered as she brought her hands up to her face. “I’m so sorry…”

  “H-Hey…” Cid stuttered as he reached over to her shoulder to comfort her, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “B-But still…!”

    She suddenly broke down into sobs. It was clear she had been absolutely terrified the entire time. She had been so helpless, and she hated herself for it. She felt like she should’ve done something. She felt herself being pulled into a tight hug and clung to Cid, the only other survivor in this whole mess. They both fell to their knees, clinging to each other, both of them shaking. They both forgot about the Shrieker, too wrapped up in their shock and grief.

    “I was so scared… I should’ve tried to…!” Gale sobbed. She felt herself being held even tighter, but he didn’t give any response otherwise. What could he say to make any of this better? Nothing. All he could really do was hold her, and try to be someone she could lean on. As his anger died down, he felt a strange weakness in his limbs. A numbness replaced what was supposed to be grief and guilt. Perhaps it was because he knew they were still in danger. This was not a safe place.

   That was the governing thought in his mind that suppressed everything else. He stared off into the distance, listening, watching… falling into a haze he didn’t even know he was creating. His light quietly circled both of them in wisps of flames and embers, one last attempt to save the only other survivor should something come to snuff them out. If something were to come, they would be met with a burst of fire that would burn them away. He suppressed his fears as best as he could along with the grief, but went completely silent. He felt like if he talked, he would break in two. He couldn’t afford that now.

    “You hear that? Someone’s here!” a familiar voice called out. Was that… Ash?

    “That has to be them!” That sounded like Sarah.

    “Gale? Cid? Is that you?” That had to be Alexander’s Ghost. They felt some relief hearing their voices. When they looked up from the entrance where they came from, they could see the three of them running out and looking upon the scene. They quickly came to the Warlocks who sat on the ground. Cid seemed to register that these people were friends and lowered his defences. He was still shielding a trembling Gale with his body, and it would be nearly impossible to separate them.

    “Hey, it’s just us.” Sarah tried to assure them as they got close. She took her mask off, worry creasing her face, “See, just us.”

    “W….what are you doing here? W-weren’t you on…?” Gale started to ask with tears streaming down her cheeks.

    “We got worried and we came over here. Alex was seriously worried too, so he came down with us to find you.”

    “Oh… oh shit…” Ash backed away a little seeing the body near them. She hadn’t seen anything like that before and instantly felt nauseous. “What… what happened to her?”

    “She… she was…” Gale let out a few hitched sounds. She held onto Cid a little tighter for some comfort. Sarah bit her lower lip. It was hard watching both of them like this. Cid seemed unable to say anything at all, only able to hold onto her. His gaze was unfocused, staring at the wall past Sarah, lost somewhere in the haze he was in.

    “Hey, come on you two.” Sarah gently nudged them both, “We’re getting you out of here. We’ll take care of that big bastard ok? You two aren’t in any shape to fight.”

    “I can carry you both out if you can’t walk. We’ll get on the next flight to earth. We’ll make sure there’s no ailments on you two and you can both rest, ok? We won’t be long.” Ghost translated as he knelt down to them.

    “O….ok.” Gale stuttered out, “B-but… I-if you see an old wizard… r-run…”

    “We will. We promise.”

    “Let’s get you guys home.” Ash added as she started to help them back on their feet.

* * * *

    “The entire op was a disaster, in other words.”

    That was Sloane’s report on the situation, now named as Savathun’s Song. Out of 18 people sent into the depths, including the first rescue team Caliban, only 2 were left alive. 13 crystals were destroyed, but 3 were unaccounted for. Sarah, Alexander, and Ash were able to destroy the Shrieker after escorting the last survivors out of the danger. Gale responded to questions in hysterics and sobs, and Cid didn’t seem to say anything at all. He didn’t seem mentally there. As Alexander tried to coax him into talking while cleaning the blood off of his face, the EXO simply stared off into the distance.

    “If he doesn’t come around in a few days… we’ll have to reset him.” Sloane said sadly.

    “Reset him?!” Ghost translated.

    “It’s possible he might remain like that.”

    Alexander shook his head, “No way. We’re not resetting him. We’re not going to make him forget everything like I did!”

    “Alex…”

    “It’s still too soon to say that! He’ll come back around!” He looked back at his friend, still staring at nothing, “Please come back around…” He put his hand on Cid’s shoulder, “…please wake up.”

    They did not test positive for any darkness ailments, and were sent back to the Tower on the first flight, just as promised. They noticed that Cid would look over to Gale to see if she was ok every now and then before staring off into nothing again. It was good sign at least that he was still there… somewhere.

    Waiting for them back there were Paul and Tom, both knowing one of their friends died out there. When they saw the two of them walking down the hall towards the medical bay to make sure they were physically fine, they felt their hearts sinking seeing their condition. They tried to talk to Cid, but their friend was somewhere else, much to their dismay.

    His silence was deafening to Ikora who tried to coax him into talking as well. She was able to calm Gale down a little by giving her the teddy bear from her room, but she was clearly not ready to say anything about what happened. She was curled up into a ball on the bed, leaning up against him, looking so small and frail. Winter was nestled in her hair against her neck, trying to give some comfort to her. Ikora didn’t dare to ask her if she could reach out to Cid. Gale was barely holding herself together as it was. Instead she sat across from them, trying whatever she could think of to get some sort of response from the Warlock.

    There was a knock, and the Warlock Vanguard looked up to see the last fireteam checking in on their friends. They still had signs of being in a battle all over them. Ash even had a blood spatter on her clothes.

    “Any luck?” Ghost asked as they quietly slipped into the room.

    “Gale is calmer… but Cid still hasn’t said a word nor has he seemed to regain any sort of focus.” Ikora replied.

    Gale looked up at the sound of her name. She seemed so tired, which was understandable after crying herself dry. She wasn’t squeezing her little bear anymore, which meant she was better, even if just a little.

    “You… you did it…?” She quietly asked, “Is the Shrieker gone?”

    “It’s gone.” Sarah nodded, “You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

    She seemed to let out a breath of relief before looking up at Cid, “Cid… they did it… it’s ok now… she’s pushed back…”

    He looked over at her when she called his name, but didn’t seem to process anything else. Alexander felt his heart sink. How long was he going to be like this?

    Ash frowned a little and pushed past Alexander to walk up in front of him. “Hey! Snap out of it!” she raised her voice a little as she looked up at him.

    “Ash, that doesn’t work…!” Ikora stood up to scold her.

    She ignored Ikora. “Gale needs you! We need you! Edna wouldn’t want you to be like this! Wake up!”

   At the mention of their names he seemed to regain some focus. He looked down at Ash, who was still in her hunter’s uniform. The sight of blood seemed to also make something click in his head. Ash reached up and gave his shoulder a bit of a shake.

    “Come on buddy, I see you in there. Come back to us. You’re safe now, Gale’s safe now. We’re all here. It’s safe.”

    Sarah and Alexander looked at each other before moving to be in Cid’s line of sight to confirm what Ash was saying. It was safe here. They would keep him from harm. They would keep Gale from harm. These were people he trusted his life with, and were here to help. They had just been in a battle, but they were back now, they weren’t dead….

    “She’s right, you’re safe now. It’s just us. We’re right here for you.” Ghost translated.

    “You can breathe now Cid. Gale’s right beside you. She’s safe. You’re safe.” Sarah assured him. Ash lowered her hand as he seemed to finally come back around.

    “She’s…” Cid finally managed to speak, “Xyer…”

    They all looked at each other. Alexander looked like he remembered something he wished he didn’t forget. He knew that name. The witch that was out there when they were trying to turn the generators on…

    “Who is Xyer?” Ikora asked.

    “A witch…” Cid replied, “She… the Thorn… same witch. She… she…”

    His body let out a shudder as he came out of his numbness to feel the pain again. He felt Gale wrap her arms around his waist while he brought his hands up to his face. He felt such a crushing weight of guilt and grief he finally allowed himself to feel now that he finally felt it was safe. He had been scared as well, and now there was no anger to replace it.

    “You can tell us later…” Ikora assured him.

    Cid nodded. Alexander felt some relief that Cid was talking again, but it was hard to see him like this. He seemed to be crying, or at least the EXO equivalent of it and there was nothing he could really do about it.

    “It’s… it’s alright. I know it must’ve been terrifying down there… just let it out buddy…” Ghost translated for him and floated closer to the sobbing man. He watched as Cid’s own ghost came out of hiding and started to nudge his face to comfort him a bit.

    “Is it ok if I tell these three about the Thorn? They’ll need to understand the danger.” Ikora asked.

    Cid gave a nod. He wasn’t afraid of that result anymore. He would’ve eventually told them anyways.

    “Do you want us to leave you alone for a while?”

    He shook his head. They all looked at each other and gave a nod. They would stay as long as they needed to. It was understandable he didn’t want to be alone. Alexander came up to him and wrapped him in a hug as best as he could, with Sarah and Ash both  coming close, trying to comfort him as best as they could.

* * * *

    When he first woke up he hardly remembered what had happened. The entire thing seemed hazy at first as he laid there staring up at the ceiling. He had been completely out of it by the time he got back to the Tower, hardly registering anything around him. There were a few things he could recall after they were found. He did remember checking on Gale every minute or so to make sure she was still there, and slowly coming out of his shell. He remembered breaking down in front of all of them, and eventually being able to tell what exactly happened down there even though he couldn’t remember exactly what he said. He also remembered a doctor walking in with two vials, one for him, and one for Gale. He said that it would put them to sleep so they could recover, at least a little.

    He let out a groan as more came back to him. Everything leading up to the point they were found came rushing back to him in an instant. He turned to his right and saw Gale was still deep in sleep, clutching onto her stuffed animal for comfort. In a way, he was glad she was still sleeping. After this, it would be nightmare after nightmare for her. He knew he was in for hell as well, but he was more worried for her well being.

   He slowly got out of bed, noting that they were still in the medical wing. They were probably left here to rest. A drug induced sleep was only a temporary solution however, he knew that. It was one only meant for the first day, after that they were on their own. They would both be lacking in sleep for some time, corpses and gore dancing in their dreams. This time however, now that he was fully conscious, he had something deep in him that burned. It was something that burned and would speed up his recovery a little.

  Hatred. A desire for revenge against that witch would push him forward. He would have other factors helping him along, but there was no denying that he would keep marching on just to spite her, and to one day wrap his hands around her skinny little neck and watch her burn.

    “You know.” He looked up to see Sarah in the doorway. She was holding a paper bag in one hand which clearly housed a bottle of wine, “They really have shit security here.”

    “Who’s going to rob a medical wing surrounded by Guardians?” Cid replied.

    “Fair enough.” She shrugged before sitting down beside him, “I wondered if you two might want this eventually.”

    “Not me… alcohol makes me worse.”

    She shrugged, “Suit yourself. Glad you’re back with us, gotta say. We were really worried for a bit there. You were really out of it, and she… well…”

    “I guess I just… wasn’t really processing it. All I could think of was making sure she was still… there.”

    “You were staring off into space, not talking to any of us. Poor Alex got really scared because you just… weren’t there.”

    “I remember it pretty vaguely…”

    “I can imagine…” Sarah sighed a little, “I’m really sorry you had to go through that.”

    “Don’t be… not like it was your fault.”

    “I will be and you can’t stop me.”

    For a moment, Sarah though she saw a ghost of a smile on his face before returning to a gloominess.

    Both the Hunter and Warlock looked up as Gale started to stir and wake up. She seemed to be out of it was first, reaching up and rubbing her eyes to rid them of the haze. It would be some final moments of peace before she remembered what happened.

    “Gale? You feeling ok?” Sarah asked. Cid noted two other lights were getting closer. He was pretty sure he knew who it was.

    “Hm…? Y-Yes… nothing’s hurting…” Gale mumbled as she stretched a little. “W-why are you….?”

    Her eyes suddenly shot wide open as it seemed to come back to her. Instantly she bolted right up into a sitting position and looked directly at Cid. She seemed to relax seeing him there, and slumped down with a sigh, bringing her toy up to hug.

    “You’re safe now Gale. Promise.”

    “I…I know…”

    Cid stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. She leaned against him for a bit of extra comfort. The sleep seemed to have helped at least.

    There was a knock at the door. They knew who it was before they even looked up.

    “Hey…” Alexander’s Ghost translated, “How are you two feeling.”

    “Still a bit numb…” Gale replied.

    “You guys clear to leave? We could um… go walk. Or go for ramen…?” Ash suggested, clearly unsure on how to help either of them now. She could calm down a sobbing woman or bring out a man, but helping people in a mourning wasn’t something she knew how to do well

   The two of them looked at each other, then to her, “I don’t think a walk would be too bad of an idea.”

    It didn’t take long to get out (Sarah hiding the wine bottle in her cloak) and by the time they came to the tallest part they could climb the wall, the sun was setting. Leaning against the railing in some way or another, they all had their eyes on the Traveler, and the stars beyond. The slight breeze did help to clear their heads, but did nothing for their heavy hearts.

    There was silence between all of them, but not an uncomfortable one. There really was nothing to say. They just wanted to be in each other’s company.

    “Did they manage to recover the bodies?” Cid finally asked after a long time.

    “Yeah. Got their class items and weapons too to distribute to friends and such.” Sarah replied, “Paul and Tom were checking in on you two as well if you’re curious.”

    Cid gave a small nod, “And no sign of Xyer?”

    “She’s probably long gone. Bitch will probably stay in hiding until she wants to strike.”

    “If we find her, you’ll get first punch.” Ash added.

    “If we find her, she’s going to pay for what she’s done.” Ghost translated.

    Cid looked down at his rebuilt hand. It was a hand he had lost because of her. He had been toyed with not once, but twice, and even worse the second time she killed Edna and terrorized Gale. The hatred for her ran deep inside him, and it showed in his eyes as her glared at the sky.

    “I’m going to kill her.” He mumbled, “No matter how long it takes, I’m going to kill her.”

    Gale looked up at him with a sad look then turned her gaze to the city below. She remembered what Edna asked of her before they left. Honestly she wasn’t sure if she could do it now. She had been helpless the entire time back there, she had been terrified of that witch, and been so sick when she saw Edna’s fate. She had been so weak in that moment, and she felt weak now.

    But she did promise she would. She would do everything in her power to help him. In order to do that she had to get better, and stronger, and that would be her driving force to come back from this.

_“…I will. I promise.”_

_“Good. That’s all I needed to know. By the way, if I die, just take whatever you need to do that, kay?”_

_“You’re not going to die.”_

_“If I do, you might want to start paying attention to those dreams.”_

    Gale shook her head a little. No, there was no way that was a vision. She never had such things before. Why would she now?

    Of course… there was the Awakening of the Traveler that changed so much…

 


	6. A Spoonful of Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small Insight into Xyer

    Gale was right in her estimate: she was very old. Ancient would be the word for her. She had been around since nearly the beginning.

    She had been a very young woman, barely mature, when the three would-be-gods came to her little floating isle. As soon as she laid eyes on Auryx, Savathun, and Xivu Arath, she found herself in awe of their power. She remembered staring starry eyed at their forms, listening to things she had seen in dreams herself. The end of Fundament coming at a breakneck pace, the worm Gods beneath the seas and the Leviathan: the horrors that three of them told of all sounded completely plausible.

    Then they offered an Ultimatum. Their proposition was simple: house the worms inside their bodies to live forever, or die by their hand. The choice was obvious to Xyer. Everyone looked at each other, suspicious, scared, but not Xyer. She walked up to the Gods without fear, to Auryx who held the squirming creature in his hands, and took it. She asked quietly, “Do I swallow it whole, or does it burrow into me?”

    “Whole.”

    She did not hesitate. With a smile, she turned around to the gawking people and placed the worm in her mouth, gulping it down in one motion. She started to grin that signature wicked grin as she felt it crawling down her throat and into her belly where it would happily reside. She felt it digging into her flesh from the inside, and felt it biting into her. She felt it then, a surge of power rushing through her, and in that moment they all witnessed the girl being reborn into the witch. It was such a strong reaction, one that didn’t match the transformation of Auryx or his sisters, but one that impressed them nonetheless.

    “You were born for this, weren’t you?” Savathun smiled so sweetly back then.

    Xyer turned back to them with a laugh, “I think I was! Who’s next?” she asked, turning to the crowd. Half of them were willing to join, while the other half were killed, with Xyer leading the charge. She found a new thirst: for blood and destruction. It satisfied her worm, and it made her feel a joy she hadn’t felt before.

    It went hand in hand with her other passion: knowledge. She knew that it was the only reason she lived this long. It was preferred that she stayed out of the frontlines: she was too valuable. She made weapons, researched the nature of the darkness, worked quickly with the cunning Goddess to make everything work. More often than not she was safely in the Sword world, where nothing could touch her. It was convenient, especially as the siblings killed each other for kicks and to learn from each other. She stayed out of the crossfire in this way, which ensured her survival.

    She lived long enough to see thousands of races wiped out, Auryx to ascend to Oryx the Taken King, and the siblings part ways. She had stayed on friendly terms with all of them, which allowed her to move when the time came before Crota fell. The work came with a price, one she didn’t mind paying. She was never wed, never made love with another, never was a mother. She had no interest in that however. She was happy enough to be here, doing what she loved the most.

    As she suspected would happen, Kio was punished for her failure. Savathun’s court ruled guilty to failure in command and the girl was slowly, painfully killed. Xyer had seen this many times before. Sometimes she was the one dishing out the punishment, other times she helped to bring about the verdict. She honestly didn’t care. It was their own fault if they failed, and if they were going to be the best, they had to cull the weak.

    Now that it was over and things were pushed back, Xyer at least had more time to perfect her plans. Staring at the crystal in front of her she kept pondering an idea. Was it possible to tune this crystal like an instrument? At the moment it was full of void light, a powerful force and the only type of light the Hive could handle, even if it was dangerous. She was wondering if it was possible to add a bit of darkness, see if she could balance it out. She wanted something that was raw energy that could be used to power not just rituals, but things of the light they wanted to get working or old creations of the darkness. It could be used for anything she could think of, anything she desired. The problem was testing if it could be possible… it if was… if her theory was right…

     The witch took a deep breath and brought her hands to the crystal. Carefully she summoned forth just a bit of her power. She watched it slowly seeping into the crystal, and naturally it reacted with the opposite alignment. She let out a shriek as it suddenly sparked. She nearly lost focus and almost dropped the thing. She waved her hands around a little as she shook off the pain.

 _Damned thing._  She thought, snarling at it. She placed it back on her desk, planning on trying again in a few moments. The small room that was her home was full of tablets, scrolls, runes, neatly placed all around the circle. On the floor was a space for a ritual circle if she needed to draw one, and in front of her was her desk. The void crystal sat on top of it, the one she snatched from that foolish Hunter, but two other were on the walls for her to try to use. She much rather get it right the first time however. If she got it right, she could make more with what she had.

    “Xyer.”

    The witch turned around to see another Wizard in the doorway behind her. She got along with most Wizards, she had even instructed a few, and this one wasn’t an exception. People didn’t bother her in here though unless it was for good reason. There were times she shut herself in here for weeks developing something and didn’t like to be disturbed. They all knew better than to bother her for no reason. She could destroy them all in one fell swoop if she wanted to.

    “Pars? What is it?” she tried not to sound a bit irritated, even though she was.

    “The Guardian we caught after the raid, he will not speak no matter what we do. I think we need your talents in matter. Besides, didn’t you want to study the ghost?”

    “I was hoping to get this work first.” Xyer folded her arms, “But perhaps the ghost could help in this experiment. Let me see what I can do.”

    She quietly floated behind Pars through the dim hallways. Savathun’s structures were more elegant than Oryx’s, but it was still dark and creepy to anyone who wasn’t a Hive. It was home sweet home to Xyer however. She waved to a few knights walking past her who gave her a bow. She had a few trying to vie for her hand before, but she turned them all down. Her heart belonged to science, and besides… she had someone else in mind.

    Deeper into the Sword World they went until they came to the cells. It had been some time she was last down here. Usually she would let others take care of this job of torturing people for information, but as soon as she floated in, she could see the problem. It was clear from the black blood on the ground that this man, a Titan she assumed from the mark, was being very stubborn and injuring the knights holding him prisoner here. Even though his hands were tied behind his back, he seemed to be resisting at every turn.

    “You’re wasting your time bitch.” He snarled at them in English, “I’m not giving you Hive anything.”

    Xyer turned to Pars, “I’ll handle him. Take a stroll my dear, I might be a while.”

    “Of course. I think you’ll be far more successful than me. My English and my telepathy are not that great.”

    Pars floated off, leaving him with the far worse witch. She looked at the two knights.

    “Take a break and heal your wounds. You know me, I’ll be just fine.”

    The knights nodded, happy to finally leave the man be. Then man let out a snarl once the Knights left and tried to rush the woman, even though his hands were bound behind his back. He suddenly felt himself being picked up and then thrown into the wall with great force. The Witch didn’t even physically touch him.

     _You’re very rude, did you know that my dear?_

    “Oh great, you speak English too. Don’t know if that makes you better or worse…” the Titan spat.

     _Yes, it’s much easier to talk to your kind this way_. Xyer waved her hand, spewing out darkness as it formed into a chair she sat on, crossing one leg over the other.  _You could make this much easier just by chatting with me. I’m Xyer. And you?_

    “The hell do you care?”

     _I like knowing names._

    The man growled again and raced at her. All Xyer seemed to do was raise her hand and the Titan was forced back into the wall, making a bit of a crater this time.

     _Come on now, is it really so bad knowing your name?_ Xyer tilted her head with a smile.  _I know a Warlock that had much more bite than you. Still does._

    “Untie me and we’ll see how much bite I have.”

_No, I don’t feel like dying today thanks. I have much more important matters to worry about. You know what you need however?_

   A grin curled her lips as she raised her hand, a power gathering in her palm, pulling and tugging at something. The Titan’s eyes widened as he watched his precious ghost being pulled from his hiding spot in Transmat.

_Motivation._

    “Orion! Stop it! Leave him alone!”

     _Relax, so long as you chat with me, I won’t hurt him._  The ghost was pulled into her hand. Instead of crushing it like Edna’s, she instead gently folded its trembling form into both of her hands, stroking the shell with one clawed finger.  _So tell me my dear, what’s your name?_

  “I…” The Titan bit his lower lip and gave in, “…Leo.”

_Leo? A nice name.  Tell me, how did your fellow Guardians find out about the Shrieker?_

   “They didn’t. They just were going in there to stomp you Hive out.”

   Xyer sighed.  _Of course Kio didn’t bother being subtle. I’m all for flashy entrances, love them, but I think we really need to keep our forces on the down low for this sort of thing. I must ask though, the Shrieker was destroyed. Why did you come down into the depths anyways? You should’ve known there was a possibility we would’ve been there to see if we could salvage anything._

“I was hoping to punch someone’s face in.”

_Hah! Revenge, should’ve guessed that. Now I know your Traveler awoke to kill that idiot Cabal. Tell me, has it done anything else?_

   “No.”

    Xyer chuckled.  _You know what’s funny, you’re telling the truth. I can tell. Gods the Traveler is fickle… not to mention useless._

    “Shut up!”

_Please, you can’t even deny it. It had all the time in the universe to wake up and save you people. Even when Oryx came, who had been hunting down the Traveler for billions of years ,it didn’t respond and it killed so many Awoken, which by the way, is a few people closer to total annihilation._

    “What do you people really want then?!”

_Not much, just destruction to feed our worms and being the strongest race around to survive the universe being perfect and whole._

    “W-What?!”

_Oh, haven’t you heard? The Universe is destined to reach a perfect form, destroying and changing until it’s a beautiful battle ground._

    “How do you know that?!”

_Haven’t you been paying attention? The signs are all around you. You’re in a constant state of war. The Worm Gods, or Ahamkara as you call them, predicted this. Your Traveler was stupidly trying to prevent it or at least put people in a state of dumbed happiness if it could not. Giving things, give me a break. You didn’t earn those powers. Nothing’s in this world is free. You need to take it, take it all._

    “I earned this power!”

 _You say as I have your ghost at my mercy. You’re nothing without it, and you know it. That’s why you’re suddenly much more cooperative. The Traveler gave you this ghost. You didn’t take it. You didn’t fight for it. Now I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen to you._ Xyer’s eyes narrowed. _I’m going to take this ghost and study it a bit more for my research. You will answer every question Pars and I have otherwise I will crush it, and then you. If you want even the slightest chance of living, you best start listening, and learning._

    “You have some fancy levitation powers, I’m not afraid you.”

_Your ghost is. Perhaps you may also know me more for an incident. Six years ago now in your time… the Thorn? Does that ring any bells?_

    Leo’s eyes widened, “That was you? You possessed that Warlock?”

_Cid is his name, and yes. He and his ghost were both under my influence until the Vanguard meddled with things. I have to admit, I love that man. He was so beautiful when he killed me. He actually came looking for your friends in the depths of the Archaeology. It was wonderful to see him again… he’s still beautiful. I do long to grab hold of his jaw as he squirms beneath me. I would love to hear him whimper beneath my hands, helpless and weak. I would love to tie him up and teach him a lesson he taught me… ah that body of his is wonderful…_

    “You…! You sick witch!”

_Maybe to your standards. There are many ways I could defile him, but I’m much more interested in something else. You see Light and Darkness are two forces butting heads, but what if I can get the two to cooperate? I start with the crystals, see if I can balance the two out and see the result, and if I’m right, I’ll have a powerful neutral power. This could lead to a uniting of light and dark, and perhaps even true immortality…_

    “How?!”

  _Ah, those details are for later. Not for you._

    “You’re going to do it again aren’t you? You’re going to possess him. You’re going to massacre more people!”

_Hm, not quite. Good try though._

    “I won’t let you! I won’t let you take advantage of someone again!”

     _In case you haven’t noticed my dear, you’re in no position to fight me_. There was a rush of her magic, and the man went from being defiant to terrified. He could feel just how much she was holding back. She was not to a Godly level, but it sounded like she was well on her way to it.  _If you really want to know what I’m going to do, I’m going to take what’s mine. I’m going to take that body that doesn’t need to sustain a worm and my power. I’m going to take his light and kill his spirit. I will be a new being, one that is not attuned to light or dark and can use both, one that will never die because of the ghost. I will come to your tower and burn it down to the ground before destroying the rest of you. I’m going to find that cute girl and make her watch as her friend murders everyone she loves before slicing her throat. After that, perhaps I’ll have some cake._

    “That’s mad…! Absolutely mad!”

 _I know, isn’t it great? I revel in being your version of mad!_  She started to grin ear to ear.  _He won’t like it much, but he’ll see things my way soon enough. He won’t have a choice. It will be glorious though, don’t you think?_

    “Killing millions of people doesn’t sound glorious to me! It sounds like you’re an insane bastard!”

 _You’re no fun._  She stood up as she heard Pars returning with the knight. She turned around as the chair melted away and gave them a bow.

    “All yours.” She said to them in her native tongue, “If he gives you trouble, just remind him of his poor ghost I’m taking.”

    “You must teach me how you do this.” Pars smiled at her.

    “Grow in strength my dear, and it will come to you just as easily as breathing.”

    “I’m going to get out of here, and when I do, I’m going to skin you alive…” Leo threatened her. She smiled and turned around with a smile.

_I’ve had many death threats against me, but you’re not worth my time. There’s only one death threat I’m taking seriously, and when I’m through with him, he won’t even exist._

    She strolled right out with a sly smile, holding onto the ghost who cried out for his Guardian to save him. She strolled back to her office, and once she was inside, she put the ghost right on her table and trapped him in a small barrier.

    “Relax my dear, you’re much more valuable to me alive, for now at least.” She mumbled in her own language as it tried to punch its way out and whimpered. Pathetic little things Xyer thought, yet so vital to the Guardians…

    She looked to the crystal, raising it up to her height. If Guardians kept being caught, they could make more of these, but she did want to try and get it right. Unfortunately, it did require a risk to be taken. It was completely possible she might shatter this in the process. They could get one off of that Titan once they were done toying with him, but…

    Still, it was a risk she needed to take.

    She made it float before her as she gathered more darkness in her body to counteract the light inside. She took a deep breath and grabbed hold of it, forcing the darkness into the crystal. The light reacted violently and she felt pain racing up her forearms as it pushed back against her, but she gritted her teeth and kept forcing it in. She watched as the crystal started to change form, to expand and grow more pillars off of it. It finally came to a point where it was no longer fighting against her, and she instantly stopped. What she was holding in her hands now was a large crystal with multiple points that had gone from a deep purple to a glassy blue. Inside she could see the light and the darkness swirling about and mixing with each other. She could feel just how much energy was stored inside, waiting for someone to crack it open and take it all.

    “By Gods…” Xyer mumbled as she stared at it. She felt so drained after putting so much dark magic to balance out the light perfectly, but she could see the potential in this. She put it down on the desk and watched it slowly take a final form. The Light and Dark inside mingled together in harmony and faded from view, becoming one with the crystal.

    “H-How?” The tiny ghost squeaked, “How did you do that?”

_You know… I didn’t really know if this would work. It is however proof to my theory. Darkness is everlasting, ever evolving, ever at war, but so is the Light. Even in the darkest of places, light still remains. What do you think the Taken is? It’s barely light anymore, but a tinge of it is needed to make it work. Then of course there’s the Awoken. I believe they underwent a similar process of the Taken, but it was fuelled mostly by the Light. However… there is darkness in there. You can see it in their eyes… I saw it in that girl’s face. They’re idiots thinking they’re purely Light, and we are fools for thinking we are purely Darkness._

    “W-Which means?”

     _One simply cannot exist without the other._  She manifested her chair, sat down, and looked right at the ghost.  _It’s a fact that neither side can accept, but one I think I can play to my advantage. With these, anyone can use them, even your Guardians. What I want is not to be an agent of the Darkness nor Light, but to be my own. I want both powers, and with both, I believe I can ascend even Savathun herself_. Xyer closed her eyes and smiled.  _Of course, that’s just theory. This could be a total loss. I need something to test it on, to see if it will work, to see if it will regenerate power or if it is non-renewable. I need to test what kind of side effects it will have._

    “You… you want to become God?”

_I want many things. I want Savathun to bring back her brother. I want to have a body that does not depend on this worm and is not fleshy like a human’s. I want to watch a beautiful war to break out to prove my point, and then in the midst of the burning chaos I would rise to my power. I will destroy everything, and start anew. I would build an empire that embraced both concepts and take this cursed system for my own. Beneath me would be the old Gods, The Siblings and the Traveler, and we’ll shape this world the way it’s meant to be._

    “You’re making a lot of assumptions.”

_Never said everything was going to go according to plan. No matter what happens however, I will come on top._

    “…no you won’t.”

   Xyer opened her eyes and looked right at the ghost.  _Come again?_

  “People like you never win. You’ll get what’s coming to you.”

_We’ll see how your tune changes after I’m done with you. I want to see how you tick._

* * * *

    Pars gladly volunteered to help her test the new crystal. As Xyer had theorized, she was able to take some power out of it and her telepathy got better in an instant. The only thing that worried Xyer was the worm in her body and side effects. The worm always hungered for power, and it would most likely eat the Light and just turn it into the Darkness. As for side effects, she had no idea what kind there would be.

_Day 1: First small dose. Magic ability significantly improved. No changes in behaviour noticed. Traces of light in body._

_Day 2: As feared, worm ate the light. Will need another dose. Maybe higher concentration. Crystal has not regenerated what was lost. Finite?_

    Xyer wrote it all down. Pars sat beside her, seeming a bit troubled about something. Xyer started to write it down as a side effect before she spoke up.

    “Xyer, you must know I had a dream.”

    She stopped writing, “A dream?”

    “Yes… I saw you die in it.”

    Xyer frowned a little and turned her body to face the other Wizard, “How did I die?”

    “There was a pretty girl standing in front of you. She looked mangled and weak. Suddenly she summons a great beast made of arc. You fight it off, but a great winged creature made of fire comes down on you. Both of them destroy you. There’s nothing left.”

    Xyer suddenly found her guts twisting into knots, but quietly wrote down the dream.

_Day 3: Another dose. Crystal’s power seems finite. Must be careful_

_Day 4: Worm ate the Light again. Need a bigger dose it can’t eat all at once. Pars doesn’t seem any different._

_Day 5: Larger dose. Will keep sharp eye on her. She’s getting… weird ideas. She keeps trying to give me a present. It’s a rune she had been hard at work. Why does she keep trying to give me this? Possible side effect?_

_Day 6: As thought, worm cannot eat all of that energy at once. Notable that the darkness it did not eat still remains. We did a power test, she nearly bested me. She’s gotten strong in a matter of days. The dark power regenerated. Maybe the Light would too if not for that damned worm. She says she had another dream where I died. I’m a bit worried._

_Day 7: Worm finally ate all the light. She’s no longer trying to give me the rune. Perhaps some traits of the light comes through when user has it? Worth investigating._

_Day 8: Another dose, bigger this time. We had a court today. It was for a minor, but still grave charge. I was on the council, and Pars grew angry with me later that I didn’t give the man mercy. Something is wrong. We did another power test, and she’s beginning to match me toe to toe. It’s working, but…_

_Day 9: Pars hasn’t showed up._

    Xyer bit her lower lip as she looked for the wizard. She heard an odd wailing sound and rushed down to the depths to see if it was her missing Wizard. She ran into the cells to find her crying in front of the Titan she had interrogated a week ago. He was particularly much worse for wear now, but he was smiling?

    “You’re right Pars. It was a lie they were feeding you. The Light is not weak nor foolish. It burns bright, makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?”

     _I’ve never… it hurts but…! It feels so…!_  Pars’ broken attempt at English was heard even to Xyer. The witch shook her head in disbelief.

    “Pars! Come on, I’m going to flush that out of you!” Xyer hissed as she grabbed hold of the woman’s shoulders. Suddenly Pars was clawing at the fur around Xyer’s collar, dragging Xyer down to her eye level.

    “No! Don’t you see Xyer? You’ve created something beautiful! It hurts but it feels so wonderful! They lied to us! I need more of this light, this feeling! I-I can’t get enough!”

    “Pars!” Xyer tried to push her away with little luck, “Get a hold of yourself! This is another side effect of…!”

    “No! This is no side effect! This is good, very good! We must find a way to rid these worms in our bellies! I need more of this Light!”

    “Pars! Listen to me…!”

    Suddenly Xyer felt herself lifted up and thrown away. She let out a cry as she slammed into the wall and fell down on her face. As she got up, she watched Pars teetering form, gathering darkness in her hand and lowering the force field keeping the Titan inside.

_Run friend! Exit is above! Beware Savathun!_

    The Titan made a break for it and started to run through the hall, past Xyer, and up through the corridors. Xyer knew he wouldn’t get far. He was lacking his ghost that was still locked in her office and he would soon be killed and turned into a crystal. She could already hear the fighting upstairs.  She suddenly felt herself picked up and dragged closer to the wizard who was smiling uncontrollably.

    “Xyer, this is wonderful! The Light and Dark burning for eternity together…!”

    “By the Gods Pars, what have you done?! They’ll kill you for this! You must put me down!”

    “They kill the weak, but I’m not weak anymore. I have Light now too, and it’s making me stronger. It’s so easy now to hold you here in place!”

    “Knights!” Xyer bellowed, realizing how much trouble she actually was in. Pars covered the woman’s mouth with her hands.

    “There’s no need for that anymore…! We can do whatever we want! We just need to rid ourselves of this worm!”

_I was going to do that you idiot! But not like this! Not embracing the teachings of the Light!_

    “But these teachings are in tune with that of the Deep! They make more sense though when you combine both! Forever the Sky and Deep will war with each other, but they cannot exist without the other! You have proven it! And now that I have tasted the Light, I can see so clearly now!”

    She heard a few knights and Wizards behind her now. Pars released Xyer suddenly and the witch fell to her knees. The wizard floated past her and to the crowd who were about to open fire on her.

    “Try me. You’ll see how much stronger I am now-!”

    Pars was suddenly interrupted by something going through her back and out her front. She looked down to see a black sword, one Xyer had manifested from the darkness. Pars looked behind her to see it was indeed her mentor holding that blade.

    “…while you are stronger, you don’t have the mind for battle.” Xyer told her sternly, “You’re a damned fool.”

    Pars only laughed, “You’ll see Xyer, you’ll all see…”

    Xyer killed her without a second thought, crushing her worm that tried to crawl out of her dead body. She told the wizards to tell them Pars had been experimenting with the Light and she was the reason the Titan escaped. If Savathun wanted to see her about it, she could come. For now, she needed to write down her results.

    It was a shame, she thought. Pars had been one of her more favourite students.

    As she wrote the results down in her office, she was quickly greeted by another Wizard who handed over the new void crystal made from the Titan who tried to flee. The ghost in the office began to weep, hoping this would not happen to his beloved Guardian.

    She found herself staring at the crystal she made. If she was to do this… she needed to be prepared. These side effects could wreck her entire plan. She couldn’t afford to end up like Pars. All of that power in a crystal though… it was too good to pass up…

    She made 3 more, and destroyed the depleted one. She thought these crystals would give her power, but in truth, it would be one of the reasons that Pars’ dream would come true.


	7. Beneath Skin and Metal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst, angst, look at all the sads

    The reflection in the mirror seemed a bit alien now. He knows it’s not his. He’s seen his real one before that body had been destroyed. It was his reflection, he supposed, but sometimes he had moments where he didn’t feel like this body was his. He supposed that was the one bad thing about finding the truth. It was a strange feeling, being in a body that doesn’t feel like your own, and it wasn’t pleasant either.

    He didn’t get the chance to tell the Vanguard what had gone down at the lake until much later after the Iron Banner. Cayde seemed interested and it had given him food for thought, Ikora wanted to make time as soon as she could to see the spirit, but Zavala had the most unusual reaction that truly threw him for a loop. The Commander was  _angry_ , furious that he had gone to investigate the past. “I thought you were better than that!” he raved. “Don’t you know never to go investigating your past? I thought you were going out on a mission!”

    It broke out into an argument (an age old one) about whether or not the past should be left buried. The two went back and forward on it, only getting more frustrated with the other’s stubbornness. Zavala had long since cemented the idea that the past should be left alone to keep the horrors buried beneath, while Alexander held the belief that we should know the past in order to learn from it.

    “I wanted to know who I am, and now I do. I thought you’d understand I needed to find answers!” As his ghost translated that, it sounded like he was just as mad as Alexander was.

    “There’s a good reason that rule was put in  _Guardian._ ” Zavala said Guardian like a disappointed father, which only sparked a bit more anger. Alexander was sick of being treated like a child, and it had finally gone away after he took down Ghaul. He wasn’t about to be treated like one again.

    “Don’t you  _Guardian_  me! You act like we’re a bunch of children, but guess what? We make the choice whether we want to find more about ourselves or not! Yes it can turn bad, but it can also turn out good like mine’s did! Don’t you dare try to say something bad came out of this!”

    “The risk is too great! This spirit could’ve killed you! She could’ve lied to you!”

    “But she didn’t, did she? When did you become the pessimist who thinks everything is out to kill us?” he let that hang in the air for a second before turning on his heel to storm out.

    “Alexander-1 do not turn you back on me! This conversation is not over!”

    “I told you.” The Titan turned back around with a glare, “My name is Alexander Gavin, and you’re right, this isn’t over, but I don’t want to fight you on this anymore.”

    They did end up making a truce for Savathun’s song, but argument broke out again when he didn’t hear back for a long time from fireteam Caliban. Both Zavala and Sloane were fighting against him chasing after the fireteam that went down there. He wanted to go because he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. It seemed that the two hunters who arrived shortly after had the same feeling. Against orders the three of them ran in there, and were thankful they did when they came to the Shrieker. He had never seen those two like that. Honestly out of all the things he had come up against and witnessed, seeing what had happened to them was the scariest one. He could only imagine what could’ve happened to those two had they not showed.

    He was so relieved when they didn’t need to reset Cid, he had to admit. Once Sloane put that idea in his head he had been terrified that they would make his friend forget. He knew he didn’t want to forget a single thing that he knew now, through the pain, tears, anger, joy, happiness, he didn’t want to lose any of it, because it made him who he was. Yes the spirit did stay intact, but after all he went through to get it all back…

    He should’ve remembered Xyer. He would forever kick himself for that.

    With two people downed, he really felt a weight on his shoulders. He did all could for them, but grief hung in the air around them, and wouldn’t leave. He wanted to do more for them, but if he was being honest, he was lacking ideas. All he could do really was talk to them and give them hugs when the chance presented itself. Ash and Sarah were in the same boat with trying to deal with this, and both were at a bit of a loss as well.

    Those two were also so crucial to their team: one healer, one veteran, both powerful Warlocks, both out. He could run with Sarah and Ash, he’d done runs with Red before as well, but it didn’t feel quite right. It felt like they should be there. It felt wrong to leave the tower while those two struggled to sleep or find any peace.

    Unfortunately, it added to the time Alexander spent staring at the mirror. He was Alexander Gavin, not some reset number. The problem was that at times he felt like he should be in a body of flesh and blood. It was a weird creeping feeling that his hands weren’t his, like something was crawling over him and moving everything for him, changing everything. He couldn’t seem to kick the feeling for some time either.

    He sighed. He needed to be better than this, he scolded himself.

_You’re doing all you can._

    Alexander smiled a little to himself and closed his eyes.  _You can read my mind then? Good to know._ _I thought you were staying at the lake Terra._

    _I would’ve figured you knew that by now that I can, but I won’t be intrusive, promise. I was staying at the lake, but I thought I’d check in. What happened to your friends?_

_An old Hive Wizard named Xyer got to them. She messed with them and killed a hunter with them, one of Cid’s old friends, in a gruesome way._

_Oh… oh that’s terrible. I’m so sorry._

      _So am I._  Alexander heaved a sigh and looked back in the mirror. He knew Terra had no physical form this far away from her lake, but it didn’t hurt to see if she showed up in a reflection. She did not.

_You can only do so much to help. They will have to come out of it themselves. You can only offer to take their hand every now and then when they get lost._

_I… know…_  Another sigh.  _Did Ikora talk to you?_

_Oh yes! We had a lovely conversation!_

_Glad she was much more accepting than Zavala._

_Your commander? What happened?_

_I told him about the lake, and he was furious. He won’t tell anyone, don’t worry. He was just angry I went and discovered my past. Apparently that’s not allowed._

_That seems foolish. How can you properly see where you’re going if you cannot see behind you? For all you know, you could walking in endless circles._

_Right? He doesn’t see it that way though. He only sees the chances of finding something terrible and better left forgotten._

_I suppose there is truth to that, but how many are walking in circles? How many are running from a past? How many are burying it only for it to appear elsewhere? You can’t run from the past, you can only accept it and move forward. While there is risk of being consumed by the past, it is something that must not be ignored. Everyone has one, but only the ones who accept it and move one have bright futures._

_You said it a lot better than me. You always did have a way with words._

_As you do at times as well. Listen, you remember how when you felt down you would work on something? Perhaps it’s time to do just that. Toys, welding, or maybe something more practical?_

_Huh… it wouldn’t hurt to get back into it. I’m going to be incredibly rusty though._

_You had to relearn many things. I know you can relearn that._

    Alexander gave a small nod and smile.  _Thanks. And thanks for visiting._

_Of course. I hope your friends get better soon. Until then, stay strong Alex._

_I will._

    His head went silent and he stood up. He opened the door and walked out. He had an idea on where to get his hands on some tools. Hopefully no one was going to miss them. He was already starting to think of ideas, but he would have to overcome the hurdle of not having done his craft in 300 years or so.

    Maybe if he used his hands again, they might start feeling like his.

* * * *

    A sadness still hung around the EXO. No one of course expected him or Gale to bounce back, but it had been some time between Savathun’s Song and now. A couple weeks he supposed, though time was blending together like it did back then. When you didn’t do much but lie in bed or talk to your friends who do their best to help you, it was difficult. He wasn’t shutting them out this time, but none of them felt right after that. They all worried about the other, and they all wanted to get their hands on the witch who did this.

    If he was not lying in bed or with others, he was here overlooking the city. People seemed to leave him well enough alone up on this part of the wall. He could sit on the railing or lean against it here without anyone bothering him. He didn’t think of anything rash such as throwing himself off of the wall, but some people might wonder if he would considering the circumstances he lived through. He was partially grateful for never falling that low, though he can see where it could be tempting.

     At first he pondered if he could’ve changed the outcome in any way at all. There was a nagging thought that he could’ve done something, changed what had happened. Perhaps there had been a slim chance he could’ve broken through, or perhaps he could’ve convinced her to pick him to torture and rip apart. He much rather have been thrown back in that deep hell than to have them suffer. To see the witch even lay a hand on Gale had his circuits twisting about. To see an old friend murdered like that… he had the dangerous thought still lingering about that it should’ve been him, and not Edna who died down there.

    But many people assured him, and he was slowly starting to accept, that there was nothing he could’ve done. He hated how he was ultimately helpless, but she made the choice for him. He didn’t tell her to throw that knife and anger the witch. He was trying to avoid making a choice at all.  

    And if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he would’ve chosen Gale anyways. A tiny guilty part of him wondered if Edna knew that and it influenced her decision at all.

    He sensed a light getting closer to him. He turned around to see Ash wandering over. The first thing he checked as if she had something behind her back, because if she did, chances were that he or something on his person was about to get exploded or set on fire. She had her hands at her sides this time, thankfully, not to mention she wasn’t smiling. The chance of being pranked was very low.

    “Hey.” She greeted, “How you feeling?”

    “I’ve been worse.” Cid sighed and turned back towards to the Traveler, “What have you been up to?”

    “Not much, just… clumsily trying to sort through shit…” Ash stood beside him and leaned on the railing, “I don’t know how you people sort through things in the Library.”

    “…wait what?” Cid looked at her puzzled. The confusion strangely lifted the gloom a little, “You? In the library?”

    “Why are you people always surprised when I do things like this?”

    “Because it’s you: the Pyromanic Hunter who pranks people and cuts through the Crucible like it’s no one’s business.”

    “Ok, fair enough, but uh…” Ash sighed, “If you feel up to it… I need help recovering stuff I found. I lost it all when the Cabal came busting down our door.”

    “Well…sure, but what’s it for?”

     Ash looked down and bit her lower lip before turning to him, “Promise me that you won’t tell Sarah I told you this, ok? Hush, hush, all that. No mention of this ever came to your ears.”

    At this point, Cid found himself getting a bit concerned. What was Ash suddenly worked up about? “I won’t tell, promise.”

    “Ok…” Ash sighed, “Look, uh… Sarah remembers a bit of her last life. She uh… she had a kid. She doesn’t know what happened to that kid, whether or not she lived after Sarah died. It’s been really bothering her, and half the reason she’s in the bar every night, and I think I found stuff that proves she lived. But before I could show it to her, asshole came and blew it all up! I need to see if anything’s left. I had copies, so it might be possible the originals are still intact, right?”

    “It is possible.” Cid nodded, “But why don’t you tell her you found stuff?”

    Ash raised a brow, “Cause yes, she won’t kick me off of the Tower if I say her daughter lived without any sort of proof.”

    “…you know…that’s fair. Alright,” Cid stood straight up for the first time in a while, “I’ll help you look.”

    “Yes!” Ash threw her hands in the air, “You’re the best!”

    She practically dragged him to the rebuilt library that was much more modest than the last one. It was less of him not wanting to go and more of Ash being energized and trying to rush there. The operating section was much smaller, and the rest of it was still in the works, but it was at least open to people again. The difference was much more noticeable inside as it looked more like a highschool library than the grandness it had been.

    He knew these shelves well, as he helped to bring it back to life, and already had an idea on where to start. He quickly navigated between the wooden shelves to a place next to some study tables.

    “What was her name?” Cid asked as he came to records.

    “Cilka Navarra. We’re looking for city history, not anything before”

    “Well that makes it easier. Any idea when Sarah died?”

    “Uh… Before twilight gap?”

    “Well that narrows it down…”

    Ash found herself amazed at how quickly he was able to sort through the books and pick out a few records. He set one down and started to skim the pages listing names of children in schools. Each one had a photo next to it. He flipped to the C and S section on each year, and sure enough, in the fourth grade records of that year, there was a little girl named Cilka Navarra, and the resemblance to Sarah was obvious.

    “How in the hell did you find that so fast?”

    “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been doing this for? Hell, maybe in my last life I was a damn librarian.”

    Ash giggled, “Cid the Librarian turned badass Guardian.”

    “I mean, Gale was a nurse turned badass.”

    “True. You know, all of this talk about past lives really got me thinking, ya know? I mean, it’s something to be curious about sure… but…”

    “Ash…?” He raised a brow at the sudden change of tone.

    “I just wonder… do I really want to know…?”

    His face turned into one of concern, “Are you ok?”

    “Yeah,” she waved it off, “It’s nothing. Let’s just keep digging and see what we can find!”

    There was no denying though for a moment something really bothered the Hunter, but Cid had a feeling he wouldn’t get any answers if he asked in that moment. Instead he helped her look through the records both on the shelves and through the Database. Ash admitted there was stuff missing, but they still had the story together again. After Sarah died, Cilka was taken to the city and raised as an orphan. She was never adopted. She was told of her mother’s heroics, and started to make a habit of writing to her. Only two letters survived, one when she fell into a river and blamed her survival on her mother, and one where she graduated and going to work for the city militia. There was a certificate of marriage to another woman, but they never adopted a child. The woman had health problems, and Cilka couldn’t take care of her and a child at the same time. She had died some years ago of old age.

    “She doesn’t think there’s a slim chance she’s alive, does she?” Cid asked.

    “No. She just wants to know what happened, and this is it. I just need to copy this all again.” Ash replied.

    “Why not show all of this now?”

    “You’d think I’d ever find this again? I have no idea how to navigate any of this. I had help before from some nice Warlocks. Plus she’s not here.”

    “I suppose that’s true.” Cid sighed.

    “But you know…” Ash looked down, “If spirits and stuff exist, Cilka must be sad.  By now she probably found her mom, and she just stuck in this loop of blaming herself, drinking, and trying to feel some vengeance from killing Fallen.”

    “…I know I wouldn’t want anyone to feel like that.” Cid glanced away for a moment. It was something he knew well in a sense.

    “She said to me… she said to me she didn’t deserve to be brought back. It should’ve been her daughter. She even tried to….” Ash paused and shook her head, “A-Anyways, thanks. I just hope this will help.”

    Cid looked at her before lowering his gaze and shaking his head, “You should talk to someone.”

    “Eh?” Ash looked up at him puzzled.

    “It doesn’t have to be me, but I can’t help but feel you’ve been dragging some weights around you’ve been hiding behind a smile.”

    Ash glanced off to the side, her face showing some gloom for a moment before looking up at him.

    “You should be more worried about yourself. You’ve been through a hell of a lot.”

    He smiled a bit, partly because what he was about to say sounded very familiar to what he was told, “I’m not gonna feel better worrying about you.”

    Ash gave a bit of a pout, like she wanted to argue but couldn’t. She sighed a bit, “I promise I’m fine. I’m just thinking a bunch lately.”

    He was tempted to tease her about the fact she was thinking at all, but held his tongue, “Such as…?

    “I’ve just… you guys mean… you all…” she sighed a bit in frustration, “Ugh, I’m so bad at this.”

    A tiny smile came to his face, “You’re doing fine.”

    “Hhhh… just all of this. After all this happening, I don’t anymore to happen to you guys. You guys mean a lot and I hate seeing you in pain. I just want to do what I can, ya know?”

    “That’s… really sweet of you.” Cid raised a brow for a second, “Believe me, you’re going above and beyond. You’re even helping me a bit by getting me doing something.”

    She started smiling, “Well, good! I’m glad I’m doing something for ya! But uh… wish I could…do more.” Her gaze trailed off to the side again, “And all this past life stuff’s been getting me thinking. Every time I try to remember I feel sick, like, horribly about to vomit sick, and I wonder why, but I’m scared to find out.”

    Cid gently shook his head, “You’re doing all you can. This isn’t something you can make go away, but you help. As for the past, though it’s true that some good can come out of learning it, I think there are some things better left alone. If trying to remember makes you that sick, chances are you don’t want to know.”

    “Yeah…” She looked back up at him, “Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t worry about it.”

    She then smiled a little and wrapped her arms around the EXO, who seemed a bit surprised. He didn’t take Ash for the type to hug. But as soon as she let go, she also lightly punched his arm. That was a bit more in character.

    “You still owe me that rematch. I’m looking forward to it when you get better!” She was grinning now, and he couldn’t help but smile a little with a sigh. That was the Ash he knew.

    “Hope you’ve been getting better at your swordplay.”

    “You bet I have!”

    There was a chorus of shushes through the place as Ash got a bit too loud. She sheepishly covered her mouth as her cheeks flushed red. Cid gave out a quiet laugh at the reaction.

    “You forgot where we were, didn’t you?”

    “I might have…”

     _But at least you’re looking more like yourself_. Ash thought with a small smile.

* * * *

    They say that ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.’ Whoever said that had no clue what they were talking about. The words the witch said had buried itself deep in her skin, mostly the ‘weak’ part. She certainly did feel weak. As far as she was concerned, she had been weak back there. She had been scared, and even when the witch was touching her, she didn’t think to shock her, attack her. Perhaps they could’ve all gotten out of that if she even thought about doing that. She had been so scared though…

    She sat on the floor today. She was curled up in a small ball, staring intently at the wall. Sometimes in here she could feel ghosts of that clawed hand on her body. Over her breasts she felt a cold, disgusting feeling of being touched by something she hated. It slid about in the same pattern that she burned into her brain through the fear. When she closed her eyes the memories twisted with the dream world to create an even more horrible nightmare. It was one where it wasn’t just Cid out of her reach, but everyone she cared about as well. She would scream and cry as thorns wrap around her wrists and prevent her from saving them from the witch’s wrath.

    What happened to Cid was always the worst, always the thing that woke her up screaming and crying. He would always give himself up just so she wouldn’t be hurt. And what happened after…

   Arc energy tingled as she gripped herself a little tighter. She didn’t want to be the one at the sidelines. She didn’t want to be the one that is weak and helpless. She promised she would take care of him, and keeping him alive and not letting him do something like that was part of it. She had thoughts of how to work her Light to be better, but a part of her didn’t even want to bother trying it, thinking she was that weak.

    The other part of her, that was getting stronger as time, words, and love healed her slowly, that said to do it anyways. It was worth a try.

    She silently stood up, her head tilting back as she took a deep breath. She quietly stilled herself, feeling that tingle of arc in the air, the calm before the storm…

    Not a storm, a hurricane.

    The storm swirled around her instead of channelling through her. It made a solid wall around her made of Arc that swirled around her, venting out some of her fears and her sorrows all the while. It was short and sweet, but the theory did work. The only problem was that she could feel how much it took out of her just with a short stretch, which naturally put a downer on her. She found herself hunching over with her hands on her knees as he became lightheaded after trying something like that right away after so long. Part of it of course was because it was new, and she hadn’t been well the last two weeks, but she didn’t think of it that way.

    Tears welling in her eyes from frustration, she picked up her coat and decided to walk instead of staying in there feeling sorry for herself. She was sick of crying, and sick of feeling like hell. Perhaps some air would do her some good.

    She started to aimlessly wander the walls, looking upon the city and the Traveler. Numbly she noted that the being still wasn’t whole, even though it had been some time. Months of rebuilding, yet the Traveler still had large pieces it was trying to place back together again. It was strange, but it wasn’t like they could look back in history and see if it was normal. All they could do was sit and wait it out.

   It was times like these that she wished she could talk to it, ask it about her dreams, the witch, how to get stronger. She spoke to Ikora, sure, but it would be nice to get an ancient God’s advice. Someone like that had to have seen so much, could teach them so much, just as it taught the Golden Age populous.

    She laughed bitterly at the thought. Like the ancient machine would ever give her the time of day. The God who terraformed planets and moons just as easily as breathing, who gave birth to AI and the Ghosts, and countless other marvels had other things to worry about. One little Guardian didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

    (Oh how wrong she was.)

    She could distantly hear a conversation. As she drew closer, she could recognize it as Ikora arguing with someone. Usually she was in the Bazar section of the tower, but she was here on a lookout with what seemed to be some Warlocks. It was an argument of knowledge, an age old one by Warlock standards. The Warlocks claim to know everything, but the masters naturally disagree.

    “You couldn’t touch me in the crucible. I’m not going to waste my time proving my point through battle.” Ikora shook their head at them.

    “I’m telling you, I’m ready!” one of them shouted back. Ikora glanced over and raised a brow at Gale.

    “Ah, there’s a Warlock that could go into the Pryamidion. Gale, how are you feeling?”

    “I’m… alright I suppose.” She sheepishly answered. There was a moment where Gale saw some worry in her eyes before turning back to the others.

    “We can have this discussion another time.”

    “That girl might have taken down the Almighty, but that’s small fry compared to that Pryamidion!” someone argued back. Gale felt a stab of anger hearing that. The fools clearly had no idea what they had to run through.

    “And what have you done?” Ikora asked with a raised brow. “Read Asher’s books?”

    “Yes, and fought plenty of Vex!” someone else argued back.

    “Really? When? I don’t remember any of you leaving the library.”

    There was dead silence before one of them turned to Gale.

    “Hey you! You and me! Crucible!”

    “W-What?!” Gale’s face turned into shock as she was suddenly dragged into their fight, “I-Is that really necessary?”

    “Hey! Enough of this!” Ikora shouted at the overzealous Warlock.

    “If she can beat me, I’ll drop the subject. No more arguing about this.”

    Gale sighed a little and shook her head at the argument that she somehow got involved in. She was far too tired for this, far too emotionally exhausted.

    “No.”

    “Hah! The one who took down the Almighty won’t even fight us.”

    “Because you are not worth her time. Either leave now or I will throw you off of this wall!” Ikora shouted at them.

    The Warlocks looked back at their vanguard, rolling their eyes, “No, it’s because she’s a damn coward. I’ll bet the rest of em are too.”

    It was one thing to insult Gale, but to insult the others? The Awoken’s eyes narrowed at them and the air about her began to tingle as she let the feeling of anger still. She could probably take on some punks, no matter how weak she was, right?

    “Come at me then.” She growled. “Right now.”

    “Gale…!” Ikora was about to scold her, but one of the Warlocks was already running at her, most likely about to throw a Novabomb on her head. The woman stood there like a rock, closing her eyes, and letting the arc tingle through her. She figured it would be enough to just give them a warning shock, and then blast them.

    She naturally was underestimating herself.

    When the Warlock got close, they were met with a wall of arc energy. More of that sorrow, anger, and frustration came out in that swirling storm around her. She found herself being quite taken aback when the unfortunate Warlock suddenly went flying right past Ikora, their friends, and a ways away. It was a surprise that it didn’t kill them considering the impact and how much energy there was. All of them stood there for a moment until the Warlock got up and looked at her like she was crazy.

    “Ok… point taken. Alright, let’s uh… let’s practice in the crucible.” They said, and the other two decided to leave without another word. Ikora looked back at Gale, stunned at the sight.

    “I’ve never seen that before! Not even when the Iron Lords were around!”

    “O-Oh, well.” Gale glanced off to the side, light starting to flush her cheeks. Nervously she started to fidget a little, “I-I mean… I-I didn’t think it would…. d-do that, you know? I-I thought others knew that trick.”

    Ikora shook her head and walked closer to her, “You’re the first. It’s a genius idea! Have you been coming up with that on your own?”

    “W-Well… I kind of… got the idea from Cid.” Her face suddenly gloomed up considerably, “I remember feeling a bit of Sol around us when the witch left, protecting us.”

    Ikora nodded, and motioned for Gale to follow her. The two of them began to walk alongside the wall, “You seemed surprised it worked so well.”

    “W-Well I… didn’t test it on anything before. I didn’t think it would be too effective.”

    “Why not?”

    “I…” Gale stopped in her tracks and looked down at her feet. Ikora stopped with her. “I just…I…”

    “Do you think yourself as weak?” Ikora asked.

    “I…” Gale sighed, “I suppose you could say that. I was helpless Ikora, and I should’ve done something…”

    Ikora shook her head, “There was nothing that could be done. All you can do is learn, and get better. If you think yourself as weak, well…” she motioned down the walkway, “I hope that helped to prove otherwise.”

    Gale only looked up a bit, “I have to get better Ikora. I have to get stronger, but training against normal Guardians only goes so far, and I want to better improve being a Stormcaller.” She then looked up right at Ikora, “I promised I would take care of him, but I can’t do that like this.”

    “…you want me to help you?”

    “If you could?”

    Ikora gave a small laugh, but it was not cruel, “Gale… there’s not much left I can teach you. I can train against you, but you and the rest of your friends are coming to a day where you may surpass us, and it’s coming soon. When that day comes, Xyer will need to watch her back, because I can’t think of a single force more deadly than a hurricane, especially if it carries fire.”

    “I… are you sure about that?”

    “I’ve never been more sure of anything. Please do not think so lowly of yourself. It will only damage you. Your friends, this little family you’ve found, will tell you the same thing. You are more than you’re letting yourself think you are.”

    Gale wasn’t ready to agree to that, and it was clear by the look on her face.

    “Perhaps, if you want, you can work with me for a while. I know idle hands lead to idle thoughts.”

    “I think I’d like that.” Gale managed a small smile and nodded, “Thank you.”

    “I know it’s hard, but do try to rest, alright? I’m sure the others are worried about you.”

    The two of them walked down back into the main tower area. It was bustling as usual, and some familiar lights were about. She looked up towards Shaxx to see Cid and Ash talking the man up. Ikora smiled warmly.

    “It’s good to see him up and about.”

    “He’s been doing great.” Gale smiled a little as well.

    “Everything will be fine Gale, things will look up.”

    “How in the hell did you mess it up that bad?”

    The two of them turned towards the landing zone to a familiar voice. Sarah was back, and was standing in front of Alexander who had… something in his hand. It looked more like melted metal than anything else. He seemed awfully embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head and looking at the metal… flower? Was that what he was trying make?

    “Um… I’m really rusty?” Ghost translated.

    “Why didn’t you ask Amanda, or Banshee, or literally anyone for help?” Sarah asked, shaking her head.

    “I… thought it’d be easier…”

    Gale giggled a little, for the first time in a while. Poor Alexander, at least he was trying. Ikora couldn’t help but smile at the sight. It would get better. That was becoming clearer.

    “Stella is singing tonight. Perhaps you can go and bring everyone?” Ikora suggested.

    “You won’t be going?” Gale asked.

    Ikora seemed surprised at the offer, “Oh, well… I could. I was going to finish some paperwork but…”

    “Well, come with us then! You’re a friend too.” Gale smiled at her. Ikora seemed quite surprised that she would say that, but she smiled.

    “I would love to come with you.”

    “Oi! Are you making plans without us?”

    They turned back around to Ash’s voice as she bounced right over to them. Cid was behind her, and they noticed he didn’t seem quite as down. Gale smiled a little then looked down a bit to see Ash.

    “Ikora mentioned that Stella was singing tonight. It’d be fun to see it.”

    “Yeah! Been a while since I saw the old lady! I’d like to catch up!” Ash grinned ear to ear.

    “Are you going to sing duet with her again?” Cid lightly teased. Sarah had filled him on that adventure.

    “That was fun last time!” Ash laughed a bit.

    “I hope you were going to take us as well.” A familiar Ghost chirped. Alexander and Sarah had wandered over.

    “Of course.” Gale smiled at them, and not just a small one. It had been some time since she did that, “It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

    This wasn’t the end of course. That event would follow them around, but now was the time to improve. Now was the time to get stronger, better, so that the next time Xyer came, they would be ready for her.

    For now however, there was much on the horizon. The Red Legion was still about, there was the Pyramidion, and the whispers of the Taken. Even after that, there would be the call of a Cabal, the ghost of a Warlock, and the cry of a Warmind.

   The road ahead was long and winding. There wasn’t a single doubt about that. To reach the end would be a test for everyone involved, and they weren’t coming out of it unscathed.


	8. The Arms Dealer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's go kick Zahn in the teeth

    Failure after failure plagued Alexander when it came down to working on his old craft. His new hands were never properly calibrated to him. When it came to shooting people, it didn’t matter that much, so long as his aim was on point, but when it came to delicate welding? That was a rough patch he was still trying to overcome. He didn’t think he would have any muscle memory left, but it turned out he must have because he was making the same mistakes over and over.

     A Warlock bond should’ve been easy. It was an arm bracelet essentially. It was something that should’ve taken some bending of metal and some welds to seal it together. Every time he tried to work it together however, he could see the imperfections on the weld as he was relearning how to do all of this with new hands.

    He let out another sigh of frustration as he tossed another worthless piece of metal away and grabbed a new piece to start anew. If he couldn’t get the basics down with normal metal, how could he even hope to get it right with material meant for Guardians who survived the worst sort of conditions? The metal infused with Traveler knows what wasn’t exactly cheap to come by, and it would be preferable if he could get it right the first time with that.

    He remembered a time where he could make metal flowers in his sleep, but that was certainly not the case now. If he couldn’t make the bond, there was no way in hell he could make a flower attachment. He had been at this for a good hour now today, but he had also been working on it or days, trying to relearn this, trying to improve. It was a slow, frustrating process…

    Alexander looked down at his hands. There was that creeping sensation again, the one that told him that these hands were not his. He knows this, deep down. These hands were supposed to be flesh and blood, not metal and wire. He was beginning to regret a little finding out his past, but the insight that came out of it had to be worth it, right? Right?

    He didn’t know the danger associated with feeling like your body isn’t yours.

    “Hey big guy, you ready to go?”                                

    He had been working on it at the hangar. Cayde and Amanda were nice enough to lend him the space and give him pointers, but nothing short of practice would bring back the skills he once had. Alexander had been very quiet the entire time as well, which allowed Amanda to get done the endless repairs that seemed to come her way with little distraction. Seeing the discarded pile now though, she felt like she should’ve been here to help him out.

    What she was referring to was an assassination mission he had been designated for. Normally those were left for Hunters, but this was a Cabal with a large army at his disposal, and sneaking in seemed nearly impossible. Hunters were agile, but squishy, and large armies like that were difficult to take on. In light of that, it would be Sarah, Gale, and him going to this. It had another couple weeks and the Warlock seemed to be faring better now. This was also a Cabal mission, nothing to do with the Hive, which made things better.

   Ghost manifested to answer Amanda. As Alexander put down his latest failure on the table, he turned around to say something, thankful for the distraction.

  “Yeah, I think so.” Ghost translated, “I need a break.”

  Amanda smiled a bit and then wandered over to the bench. She could see imperfections in the welds that most new people make. It must be frustrating, she thought, to have been so good but then having to start from zero again.

  “It’d be cleaner if ya made it one whole piece.” She suggested. Alexander nodded a little, “Tell ya what. After you come home, I’ll sit with ya and we’ll work at all this together. I could use a big guy to help me fix some ships too! Wouldn’t mind me a competent apprentice for once.”

  Alexander smiled a little, “Sure, I’d like that. Better than learning how to do Zavala’s paperwork.”

    Amanda laughed, “I’ll bet it is. You got a lot to learn buddy, but I’ve got my money on you taking over after Zavala finally calls it quits.”

    Alexander laughed a bit (or at least tried to) and shook his head, “Not for a while yet I hope.”

  “I don’t blame ya. It’s a big job. Anyways, don’t you have someone’s ass to kick?”

  “Guess I do, don’t I?” Alexander smiled a little.

  “You better come back in one piece. Don’t go breaking my heart now.”

    Alexander felt a small bit of heat on his face as he nodded and walked towards his ship. He had to admit, he really did like Amanda. She was a good friend.

* * * *

    Bracus Zahn’s biggest mistake was setting up shop in a place they knew very well. While Alexander and Sarah might not have gone through the airbase themselves, Gale did, and she remembered her way around. It was easy for the Warlock to figure out where they were going once they found the back entrance. Slipping through the shadows, Gale took point as they drew close to a corner and peered around. From here they found themselves in anther hallway lined with glass with a full view of the airspace below. This was a different airfield than the last one, but it was far busier with Threshers flying in and out of fueling docks.

    Zahn was supposed to be here as far as they could gather, but considering it was Cayde running this show, chances were that this would not be the case.

    In the hallway they could see a few idle Cabal roaming about. They seemed like the stronger kind, but if they could get the jump on them, they would be far easier. Sarah slipped past Gale to see where she could sneak up to…

    “Hellooooo! You guys made it in ok?” Cayde suddenly chimed through the radio, starting all of them and throwing out the window their sneak attack.

    “CAYDE YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Sarah bellowed as the Cabal rushed them. Bullets flew in the air as the three of them were forced to take them head on.

    “We’re two minutes in and Sarah is already yelling at you. Great job Cayde.” Hawthorne’s voice groaned through the comms.

    “Relax, judging from the sound of them not dying and Cabal dying, they’re fine!” Cayde sounded like he was rolling his eyes. As soon as he said that, Sarah got shot in the shoulder. Gale immediately threw down a healing rift and Alexander ran into the remainder of the crowd to direct their fire away from them.

    “You know Cayde,” Sarah hissed. Alexander’s ghost was out and staying back with them, which allowed her to talk with the Vanguard, “Next time you run an op, don’t have me in it!”

    There was the sound of a body hitting the floor, and Alexander finally stood up straight and waved them over. Sarah rubbed at her shoulder where the wound used to be, and grumbled some nonsense or other that Gale couldn’t make out. Ghost flew up to be right by his head, and began to look for a console. The way down was pretty obvious, there as a door at the end of this hallway down some stairs, but opening it might not be so easy. He floated over to the nearest console and started to scan it.

    “It’s been a while since it was the three of us…” Gale mused as she looked out over the airfield.

    “It has been.” Sarah nodded a bit, “Kinda weird in a way. Last time was Alex’s first mission. Lot’s has happened since.”

    Alexander nodded a little as he smiled behind his helmet. He certainly had come a long way since then. Looking back at it now, it felt so far away, even though it really wasn’t. It was as if the Red War had pushed everything further back and took up a larger space than it was. Those weeks of stumbling around in the dark, trying to put pieces back together, and then coming up to face the man himself: all of it would forever be burned into his brain.

    There was a sound, and they all were startled by the sudden shot of red light into the sky.

    “U-Um!” Ghost stuttered, “So it turns out Zahn’s network is different from Ghaul’s?”

     “Did I just see a FLARE shoot into the sky?” Hawthorne asked through the radio. The doors opened up as some warbeasts came tearing through. They were quickly gunned down by the three of them. They made a break for the door, running out into the open airfield that was starting to fill up with legionaries.

     “A flare? I thought we weren’t allowed to have those after I….had nothing to do with why we aren’t allowed to have flares…” Cayde trailed off. Sarah raised a brow listening to that. There had to be a story behind that one, but there was no time to ask.

    Ghost found shelter behind a crate as he yelled back at Cayde, “Look, let’s not focus on the flares and let’s just focus on the fact that everything is attacking us!”

    There was a sound of an arrow being shot. Ghost peeked out from behind his crate to see Sarah had tethered the crowd of Cabal. There was the crackle of Arc and he then watched Gale tear right through them like paper. There were still some scattered Legionaries and Psions, but their numbers had been cut drastically. With the coast clear, he zipped right over to his Guardian, who was tearing up some Legionaries near a Thresher just departing to cause more hell. The two of them looked to where it had been to see a fuel cell leaking out of the station where it had been.

    It was then Alexander had an idea. Admittedly, it was a very stupid idea, but stupid ideas like carrying a radioactive fuel cell to blow up a Sun Destroyer (he got to hear all about that one) sometimes did work out. There had to be something around here he could overload with that fuel cell. So, after checking that the girls could see what he was doing, he ran over and grabbed it and made a run across the field towards another door.

   “Alex?! What are you doing!?” Ghost shouted, followed by more confused shouting from Sarah and Gale.

    “What’s that hissing noise?” Hawthorne asked.

    “Oh that was me. I… no wait, not me.” Cayde answered.

    “It’s us! Alex is carrying the fuel cell!” Ghost cried out.

    “Nice!” Cayde laughed.

    As he suspected, there was a nice little slot up ahead where the cell fit in perfectly. He couldn’t see it before, but now as he bashed his way forward with the cell, he could see there was a forcefield blocking his way. Now if the Cabal were still predictable as always and his guess was correct, he was about to take that forcefield down with an overload.

    There was a rumble through the ground as he slammed it into the slot. The barrier quickly fizzled out, but of course there was still the problem of the small army in their way. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Sarah was going to a perch to pick them off, and he could hear Gale was coming up behind him. They were in a decent position. He was now ducked behind a set of large metal crates, and there was only a small space of clearance between this one and the next stack over. It was a good choke point to make here.

    “I suppose something can be said about picking up dangerous objects and hurling them into openings.” Gale sighed as she peered over the crates to toss a pulse grenade into the ground.

    “I know it was dumb, but at least we got it open now.” Ghost translated.

    “At least you’re aware it wasn’t smart.”

    Alexander peered over and shot another couple legionaries in the face. It was times like these he was in tune with his body. Here the fine motor skills didn’t come into play. He just aimed and pulled the trigger. His human self did the same thing, and it didn’t feel any different now. The fact that he also shot many more things as an EXO helped keep that awful feeling at bay.  

   He heard the largest one at the back topple over, and he vaulted over their barrier to finish the stray few that were left. Sarah hopped down from her perch the join them as they started to run inside.

    “You’d think those Cabal would figure out by now about choke points and snipers.” Sarah commented.

    “Too stubborn.” Ghost translated. Alexander then looked back at Gale, “How are you holding up?”

     “I’m ok.” Gale nodded, “Don’t worry about me.”

     “If anything’s bothering you, just say something ok?” Alexander gave her a short nod. This was the first mission she had since Savathun’s Song. This had nothing to do with Hive, but being out in the field could still cause problems. Both he and Sarah were keeping an eye on her, but so far she seemed to be holding up.

    “We’re heading outside if we go this way.” Gale suddenly piped up when they came to a door on their left and a turn up ahead, “And if we got straight we’ll be in another airfield where Thumos’ ship was.”

    “We’ve turned this base upside down and they know we’re here. I get the feeling he’s running.” Sarah looked at the door on their left, “Might as well check the battlefield.”

    They nodded at each other and they ran out the hallways, decimating the few in their way. Once they came outside, it seemed that very little had changed. The giant ship was still here and still not repaired from when Alexander brought it down.

    “So they didn’t take this out yet and you guys haven’t been able to scavenge?” Sarah asked, placing her hands on her hips.

    “Yeah, Zahn decided to move in after you put Thumos out to pasture. Been a little difficult to salvage.” Cayde explained.

    “Wait, if you knew he was in there, why did we have to go through the base? Why didn’t we just sneak through the tunnels and onto the ship?” Gale asked.

     “I… well uh… funny story…”

     “You didn’t think of that?” Hawthorne asked.

     “Of course I did! I just figured this way would be more…. fun! Yeah, that’s it!”

     “You’re the worst.” Sarah sighed.

     The area was a battleground once again. This time it was between the Fallen and the Cabal, fighting for territory that wasn’t really theirs. It felt like yesterday that they were out here battling wave after wave to keep them off of the other fireteam. Now they were free to slip right by and walk into that ship. Behind the lines they crept, lifting themselves onto the ramp leading into the carrier and slipping inside through familiar halls. Peering into the large open room, there was something in there that certainly wasn’t before.

    “Guys, there’s a tank in here.” Ghost radioed as they all looked at each other.

    “Well that makes things even more fun!” Cayde told them

    “Why would he have a tank in a carrier?” Hawthorne asked.

    “Cause Zahn’s running scared. Don’t let up Fireteam North.”

    They looked back out at the chaos in the room. There were plenty of Legionaries scattered about, all ready to take on the three of them on top of the bigger problem. At he very least they did have stubbornness and immortality on their side.

    “You destroyed one with the hammers, why not another one?” Sarah looked at Alexander with a raised brow.

    Alexander nodded, “If you can keep the Legion off of me, consider it done.” Ghost translated.

    The girls nodded and ran out to meet the Legion. Once they had their attention, Alexander slipped into the shadows surrounding the room, walking up to the right and onto a ledge where he had a vantage point. He summoned forth his hammer and threw them down on the tank. The main canon was destroyed in a matter of seconds, and the casing protecting the Goliath was quickly breaking and melting. The last one he was able to summon hit the fuel line like he thought it would, causing the entire thing to go up in flames. All the while the Legion had been picked off bit by bit by the rest of his team.

    He quietly flipped a switch near him upwards and he could hear something coming unlocked above him. Down onto the wreckage he landed, then to the floor, feeling an odd weight in those steps. He wasn’t sure how to explain it, but he shook the feeling off and instead followed Gale and Sarah up the ramp. He looked up to see a seam in the ceiling that clearly dropped down. Gale was in the midst of opening up something, and once she was done, the seal let out a burst o dust and air as it started to lower the platform.

    “If there’s another tank up there, I quit.” Sarah commented.

    “Don’t you quit on us now, we need you around.” Cayde radioed back, “Wait, _is_  there a tank up there?”

     The question was answered by the roaring of the Goliath that had been purposely left there to slow the Guardians down. Sarah let out a groan and covered her face with both hands even though she had a mask on. Gale slumped her shoulders and let out a long sigh, and Alexander shook his head in disbelief.

    “To answer your question, yes, there was a tank up there.” Ghost told him.

    “I… you guys have fun with that.” Hawthorne told them.

    “Yay us…” Sarah groaned right before they had to dive out of the way of a missile coming right at them. She reached back for Borealis and took aim at the canon up top. Silently she loaded into the barrel Solar shots. She never did explain to Ash the true power of this weapon: it could switch ammo types, and the solar one would be perfect for shooting the missile that came out of that thing prematurely. Sure enough when it tried to fire on Alexander and Gale, Sarah pulled the trigger. The resulting explosion damaged the main cannon, rendering it useless.

    “Way to go Sarah!” Ghost cheered and spun around.

    “If we make it back alive, someone owes me Whiskey.” Sarah told them as she aimed for a spot between the plates of armor, “I need something for dealing with this shit.”

    “I’m surprised you don’t carry a flask of it around…” Gale mumbled, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to give Sarah any more ideas. By now everyone was aware the Hunter had a drinking problem, and a bad one. Though she tried to have a talk with her about quitting, the hunter just shrugged her off.

    She fired another shot into the crack between the armor plates in the legs. It toppled over to the side, crippling the walk cycle. They looked at Gale who gave a nod and ran out at the machine. She leaped right up and over and sent a single bolt through her body and into the Goliath. It was strong enough to cause a massive shock through the system and paralyse it. Judging from the smoke rising up, it wasn’t going anywhere anymore. Gale landed gracefully on top of it and hopped off.

    “You’re getting better at that.” Ghost translated as the two Guardians caught up with her.

    “Oh! I… uh…” she started to fidget a little, and they didn’t need to see her face to know she was blushing, “Thank you.”

    Instead of climbing up into the maintence door to go to the control center, they instead took a left and ran for the maintence shop. They would need to search other rooms in order to have any luck trying to find Zahn. He would expect them to go the control room (probably) so perhaps if they searched elsewhere, they would have more luck.

    It seemingly paid off when the doors opened at the end of the hall and they could see the hulking figure. Judging from the army and the set up of flame turrets everywhere inside, they found their target.

    “Zahn! It’s over! This time-!” As Ghost translated the speech as they ran towards him, the Cabal quickly leaped up and started to run from them through the set up of traps and his small disposable army, “Wha- Hey! Get back here coward!”

    The three of them had to be quick on their feet. Dodging the bullets of turrets and the army was no small feat.  Alexander used his own body mass to keep him moving forward, barrelling through anything in his way.  Sarah adeptly rolled, dodged, and leaped through the air, shooting the Cabal in the head as she went. Gale followed behind, cleaning up the mess with what seemed to be gusts of wind, but was actually Arc energy around her, forcing the Cabal away from her.

    She was getting better at commanding the storm, thanks to Ikora.

    Throughout the room there was the sound of metal ripping apart and bodies hitting the floor. Zahn had every right to fear them. He was not a soldier; he was glorified weaponsmith who was not meant for combat. It had been a foolish decision to attempt to take the remains of the army beneath his wings. He should’ve known someone would come after him, and they had to be the people who brought down the last leader in the first place.

    He knew it wouldn’t be long before they caught up, they were right on his heels. Zahn came to the lift to the airfield outside, and put the rockets on his back onto full blast mode to fly upwards and onto that field. They would follow him shortly, he was sure, but this way he would buy some time.

    “Oi! Get down here and fight us you coward!” Sarah yelled up at him. Gale was already looking for a way to raise the lift up while Alexander finished off the last Psion in the room. The lift let out a creak in protest once Gale threw the lever down on a console nearby, giving warning to the Guardians to jump onto their lift.  As it rose up, they could see Zahn there with what seemed to be a larger version of a Psion sniper rifle.

    “We got him cornered now… in uh… airfield? In a place he knows better than us?” Ghost’s shell drooped a bit as he failed to make a motivational speech.

   “Let’s just kill this guy and go home.” They didn’t need to see Sarah to know she was rolling her eyes. As soon as the lift groaned into place, they found themselves diving out of the way of more turrets spitting fire at them. Zahn, ever the coward, started to make a run for a higher platform, but was finding himself being blasted with bullets from the Guardians who were not so keen on letting him go that easily. He could feel the bullets denting his armor, but luckily for him it didn’t damage the jetpack. He boosted himself up onto a platform and sent a signal up and into the air. There was a Psion waiting in the control booth, and it activated a shield around him.

 _Hah, look at them squirm._  That’s what he thought as he looked down at them and watched them test out a few bullets on the shield. They looked at each other, then over at a fueling station currently being used, and nodded. They split up on the ground, destroying the turrets and some other Cabal that were unfortunate enough to be caught up in the midst of this fight.

    Zahn’s plan was to hold out until help arrived and then jump on a ship and leave. Admittedly, it was a stupid plan. It had all of the mechanics to work, but if he had any clue how fast Guardians cut down their enemies, then he would’ve realized how useless it was. However, he wasn’t even going to get the chance to run for a ship. Once the Thresher left the dock in a hurry to get a new ship in, he watched the largest one run for the fuel cell and pick it up in his arms.

   Wait, was he seriously…?

    Zahn then watched him run all the way to an exhaust vent near his shield. He stopped and looked up at Zahn, nodding his head. Zahn shook his head back, waving his arms to tell him not to do it. The Titan just pointed at the fuel cell, and then the exhaust vent, and nodded. Zahn shook his head even more frantically, but it did nothing to stop Alexander from throwing it inside. There was a rumble, and the shield around Zahn fizzled out. He then took a blow to the face from Sarah’s sniper, busting off part of his mask. He then leaped at Alexander, seemingly to crush him, only for Gale to get in front and blast him with the hurricane shield she had been practicing. The next thing he knew once he hit the ground again he found himself being caught on something, and when he looked, the Hunter had shot her arrow right beside him, and he was tethered right to it.

    His death then came from a fiery rain of hammers that melted through his armor, and crushed his skull. The cowardly fool was no more, and it was one less person who could take the reigns of a lost army.

    “No more weapons for the Legion then, least not newer, scarier ones.” Ghost said as the dust settled down.

    “Nice save with the shield.” Sarah commented.

    “Yeah! I would’ve been squashed for sure!” Ghost translated for Alexander.

    “Ah, well, you’re welcome.” Gale fidgeted a little.

    “I hate to interrupt, but uhhhh, did you get any loot?” Cayde suddenly chirped through the radio.

    “What loot? We came here to kill a guy, someone else can search this place for good stuff. I’m getting a damn drink.” Sarah told him.

    “I think I can use one too.” Hawthorne added, “Though I’m limiting your consumption Sarah, just saying.”

    Gale shook her head a little as Sarah grumbled a bit. Even Hawthorne noticed something was wrong.

    “Well at least bring something home for Amanda to play with. I promised her I’d get something.”

    Alexander smiled a little. He had nearly forgotten he was going to learn with Amanda tonight.

* * * *

    “So the bastard kept running away? What a prick. Uh, 3/16 wrench please?”

    It turned out an evening with Amanda was helping her fix some things, and talking. She had wanted to show him some welds, but some Guardians thought it would be funny to do some stunts and wreck a couple ships. Amanda was less than happy and apologized for not being able to teaching him what he wanted, but he waved it off, saying it was fine. Now he was enjoying talking to her and learning more about how these ships worked.

     “Yeah, but we got him. That’s one less to worry about.” Ghost translated.

     “Yeah, that’s true.” Amanda nodded. She tightened up something in here before handing the wrench back to him. She let out a huff, and climbed down off of the wing and back to ground level. “Thanks by the way for keeping me company. It’s nice not to be by myself in here at night.

    “Of course. I’m happy to help Amanda.”

    The woman smiled, “I know. You were a lifesaver back on Titan. You believed in me back there, you and your Ghost. I won’t be forgetting that.”

     He nodded a little, “Of course. You’re an amazing lady. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

     “Awww, you’re just sucking up now.” She laughed a little and lightly slapped his arm.

     “Well, no, I’m being serious!” Alexander started to move his arms a bit while he talked, “You are our best pilot after all, and you do so much for us!”

     He could see hints of a blush on her face, “Well… uh… shucks…” she reached up and started to rub the back of her head sheepishly. She looked adorable he had to admit, “Thanks big guy. You really do have a heart of gold, huh?” She then grinned at him, “And man, I can’t wait to see where you go.”

    Alexander gave a small smile, “Far, I hope. Far in the sense of achievement, of course.”

    “Well, hopefully tomorrow we can start learning, and you’ll get there. Hey, maybe you can be our Arms Dealer. I’ll bet you and the rest of your team can come up with some nice stuff for yourselves.”

    The Titan smiled a bit more, “Well, I need to practice first, don’t I?”

    “Everyone’s gotta start somewhere big guy. I’d think you’d know that best.”

    It would take some time, but he would relearn it all. The more he did it, the less the feeling of his body not being his own persisted. It would take time though, but he was avoiding the danger he didn’t even know was there.

     After all, EXOs were reset when the mind rejected the body…


	9. Lake of Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Demons, it's Ya Boi

    “I don’t think you understand, we need to get out to the Reef.”

    The two of them sat in the same room, at the same table. They were on far better terms than before. Cid was tense, and it was understandable to Ikora why he was. She also found her body a bit rigid, thinking on what happened in the last Strike.

    “I understand very well Cid… but I know we’re stretched thin. We’re still rebuilding this city, and we’re still pushing stubborn Red Legion out of our territory. Not to mention the Fallen keep making things worse. We’ve had no contact with the Reef for some time, which means something did happen, but we can’t go out there right now.”

    “Why not? I honestly don’t understand. Why not send a team to investigate?”

    “I thought you didn’t like the Reef, why are you so insistent that we go suddenly?”

    “Because they probably got slammed by the Red War. Imagine the place now. It’s probably running wild with criminals from the Prison of Elders.”

    “And that’s also why we can’t send anyone. We’ve lost too much. We’re not ready to send teams up there to storm The Reef. We need more than just a couple of Hunters scouting the area, we need an army. You still haven’t really answered my question. I get the feeling the lives of the few left aren’t the only thing making you want to go there.”

    “Did you notice the House Sigil Ikora? The House of Judgement colours are being worn everywhere I go. Something happened, whether Variks betrayed us or someone else took over as Kell. Not to mention the Taken are Taking again, which means Savathun is on the move. We need to get the Reef back up and running. We need something to see her coming, and we need to kick the rogue Fallen out there. There’s a lot of reasons to go up there, and obviously the lives of everyone there is top priority.”

    Ikora sighed, her shoulders slumping a little, “…you make your point, but it still stands. We can’t send anyone out there. And before you say something, no, we can’t send you. You’re far too important, and besides, you’d probably just be sent to your death.”

    “But…”

    Ikora looked up at him. He had seen that pleading look before, back on Io, but it didn’t anger him this time. This time it made him stop for a moment.

    “I know you don’t think yourself as important, but you are. We already lost too much, we do not need to lose the one who helped to bring down our biggest enemies. We lost your friends, we do not want to lose you too.”

    Cid looked down for a moment, “You don’t want to lose me.”

    “No one does, for many, many reasons Cid.”

    “So what’s yours?”

    “I’ve many reasons I don’t want to lose you. You’re probably thinking the more practical ones, but the one that is the most important to me, is because you are a friend.”

    He looked back up at her with a puzzled look. Ikora smiled a bit at him.

    “Are you that surprised? I know I’m not the best at showing things like that, but it’s true.”

    Cid glanced off to the side. He noticed Ikora had been much kinder to him since Io, and their conversations had been much more pleasant.

    “I guess I’m still getting used to being on friendly terms with you.”

    “In a sense, so am I. It’s been a long time since I’ve called anyone a friend… other than Zavala and Cayde of course.”

    There was silence for a moment, and Cid began to wonder for a moment. Just how lonely was Ikora? She was the Vanguard of the Warlocks, practically raising them like a distant grandmother, but she sees so many of them go astray or die. Warlocks have a nasty habit of diving in too deep, and not many can be saved if they go too far. He wondered when she started to detach herself from others because so many would simply die or go mad. Just when did she shut herself away from people, only letting them in a little bit when they needed help and got so wound up in what she thought she knew, not accepting any other theories.

    Being the Vanguard wasn’t as easy as it sounded, that was for certain.

    “You’ve been through enough already.” Ikora stood up, putting a hand on his shoulder, “We will storm the Reef, but for now, we need to put ourselves in a better position.”

    Cid gave a small nod, “I understand… I don’t like it, but I get it.”

    “Believe me, I don’t like this either, but we can’t bite off more than we can chew.” She lifted her hand away, “I need to be going.”

    He gave another nod, “Yeah…paperwork and stuff right? It never ends, does it…?”

    She gave a weary smile, “Never does. It’s a cruel fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

    He let out a small laugh, “Can’t agree more. By the way, how’s Gale?”

    “Better I believe. Keeping her hands busy seems to make her better. Have you noticed?”

    “I did actually, but since she’s working with you, I thought I’d ask.”

    “She’s going to be fine Cid. You can relax a little.”

    It was hard to however. Too much circled in his head to relax. There was far more going on than he liked, and they couldn’t even begin to dismantle it. He did take some comfort in his friend healing, but he suddenly felt the need to get his own hands busy, to focus on something, instead of a whirlwind of thoughts.

    “Whatever comes our way, I’ll shoot its brains out. Simple as that.” Ash had said to him as they left the Lake of Shadows.

 _If only it were that simple_ , he thought to himself.

* * * *

    “So, you, me, and Red huh? Shit, last time we did this was when we were testing how dumb Red was.”

    Ash was sitting on the railing of the wall, dangling her feet over the edge as she spoke. Cid was leaning on it right beside her, staring out at the wilds. They only had a few minutes to kill before they had to fly out to the EDZ and deal with a new problem. The Taken infestation had spread from Io and now had found itself to the Trostland area near the farm.  Naturally, Taken energy near the farm was a bad thing, and naturally they had to get someone to clean up the mess. No normal man could take on the Taken after all. Even some Guardians were unfit for that.

    “I know he survived the Almighty and all, but I still don’t feel like bringing him along is a good idea.” Cid mumbled.

    “He’s like a little good luck charm. Shit just works out when he’s around. What I’m a lot more worried about is you.” She turned towards him, “Are you gonna be ok? There’s probably gonna be Taken Hive there, and the bitch might show up again.”

    “I’ll be fine. If anything I’ve been waiting to get my hands on them.”

    Perhaps he’d find some satisfaction in burning those creatures away. They were a plague, consuming until there was nothing left to consume. He doubted Xyer had anything to do with their appearance however. She didn’t seem to be part of the Taken chain of command, and this seemed more like the Taken had just followed their instincts and was going towards the Shard of the Traveler.

    “Well, just don’t go too crazy with the bloodlust.” She replied. He didn’t need to ask why she was saying that. All he did was reach over and pat her on the head a bit.

    “I’ll be alright, I promise.”

    “Hey! What’s with the pat? I’m not 5!” she whined a little as she turned to face him more. He laughed a little and stood up straight again.

    “Well, technically you are, if you only count the years in your second life.”

    “Ugh!” She whirled around and planted her feet right on the floor, “It’s because I’m short, isn’t it?”

    “Maybe.”

    “Alright tall guy, I’ll race you to the hangar!”

    She then took off in a sprint towards the hangars. Cid stood there and shook his head a little with a smile. Between her antics and everyone’s support, his heart was becoming more at ease, he still wasn’t quite alright, but he had been getting better lately. Gale had been in good spirits after the Arms Dealer, which gave him hope she would be alright in the end, and eased more of his worry.

    As they took off for the EDZ with Red however, he did find that worry growing again. As they drew closer, he could sense that something was wrong, something was very wrong. Even when the three of them trasmatted down onto the ground a good distance away from the infection, he could still feel how the Taken were tearing at the seams of reality. Red of course was oblivious to all of that, as he decided to take off running to where they were supposed to go right away. He was about to give chase when he heard Ash beside him.

    “Cid… I feel weird.” Ash piped up, walking a bit closer to him, “I feel like the world around me is… weird.”

    “It’s the Taken energy. It’s going to get weird in there. You’re going to start hearing things, just try to drown it out at best as you can.”

    Ash gave him a small nod and started to chase after Red with him. The ruins of Trostland were oddly silent today. Perhaps the Fallen had been scared off by the Taken, or they were up ahead, fighting them to keep them out of their territory. Through the winding streets, trying to catch up with the speeding Titan, they heard the voice of Zavala and Devrim Kay, most likely reminding them of their mission, except…

    “Mobilizing Fireteam,” Zavala called to them, “Welcome to operation…uh… Babydog?”

    Cid and Ash found themselves having to stop for moment when they heard that. Did they just hear that word come out of Zavala’s mouth? What kind of timeline were they living in?

    “Hm, why does this say Babydog? It seems like I forgot to reset the name generator…” Zavala mused.

    “Babydog?” Devrim asked. “Well I suppose it’s got a bit of a ring to it.”

    “Hm, well… Babydog. Well the protocol is running now. I can’t really stop it… Devrim?”

    “Yes, well. Fireteam Babydog…” they could hear him snickering and starting to laugh. At this point, they could barely contain their laughter themselves, “Ahem, um, the Taken are polluting the EDZ. We need to…” at this point, it was clear Devrim was losing it, trying to talk between his laughter, “…find the s-source of… hahaha! I can’t, I’m so sorry…!”

    “Don’t be sorry!” Ash laughed. By now she was on the ground laughing and Cid was keeling over wheezing, “This is the best fucking thing I’ve heard all day!”

    “Of all the names of a Fireteam…! With you and Cid in it…! Babydog?! Hahaha! Ah dear… please g-give me a moment…!”

   At this point, neither of them were sure whether it was the fact that the Strike was now called Operation Babydog or that fact that Zavala said that out loud to them. Either way, the laughter was needed to clear their nerves going into this. Cid was eventually able to stand straight and offer his hand to Ash to help her get back up.

    He much rather this than her being nervous the entire way.

    They started to run after Red again. It seemed that the Titan must have had some sort of brain, because he had stopped in a building before a large open area. They could see Taken Blights everywhere, swarming with the creatures through a window they were peering out of.

    “I’m picking up Taken signals like crazy.” Cid summoned forth Charon so he could speak, “Not just here, but all around us.”

    “They’ve been busy…” Cid sighed, “Ash, Red, when it comes to these things, just kill them as fast as you can, alright? I’ll be right with you.”

    Ash gave a small nod. She looked at Red, “Stay behind us for now big guy. You’ll get your chance later.”

    “Awww…” Red pouted.

    She watched Cid aim his scout rifle out the window. When the first short rang out, she vaulted herself into the fray, unsheathing her sword and coming down the Taken below. She could hear the ringing of the rifts in her ears, whispers of the Taken, and the foreboding feeling tearing at the seams returned full force.

    Burn it away. Slash it to dust. Get rid of it. It was creepy, evil, and it should all burn.

* * * *

    “Why do you take up the sword?”

    Iron Banner was an interesting time. Shaxx would grumble a lot, but Saladin would be around and would tell Ash stories when she was bored. Everyone was finally getting time to participate in the Iron Banner this time (other than Alexander, but he wasn’t interested anyways) and Saladin seemed more and more pleased seeing them fight. He said strange things sometimes, things Cid and Gale would understand, but not so much Ash.

    Sitting on the table, Saladin asked her that question. She looked up with a puzzled expression.

    “Why do you ask?”

    “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that a weapon of choice can define you. From what I’ve heard of you, I thought you would be a fan of rocket launchers or grenade launchers, yet you choose the sword. It’s nothing flashy, with explosions or something like that. It’s simple and clean. So why did you choose that?”

    Ash shrugged her shoulders, “I dunno, I’ve always liked it, I guess.”

    “There has to be more to it than that. You strike with such finesse, like you were made for it. The sword suggests knighthood, honor…”

    Ash burst out laughing when she said ‘honor.’ “Me? Honor? You’re talking to the wrong person about that. I pull pranks of people every day, I celebrate a bunch when I win.”

    “But do you look down on your opponent?”

    Ash had to think for a moment, “Uh… no? I might say, ‘better luck next time’ or ‘keep fighting and you’ll get better’ but I don’t think I’ve ever done that teabag thing or insulted them.”

    Saladin had an odd look on his face, “Tea… teabag? What is teabagging?”

    “Uh…” Ash glanced off to the wall for a second, “It’s uh… a rude thing to do to someone you’ve just killed… uh…” Nervously she chewed her lower lip trying to find the words to explain it. It was like trying to explain to a grandfather how new technology works except this was just causing her second hand embarrassment, “It’s when you crouch repeatedly over someone’s body. Think of the word ‘bags’ and remember it started with dudes doing it.”

    Saladin had a look that Ash could only describe as shocked but also very disappointed, “If I see anyone doing that in the Iron Banner, I’m disqualifying them.”

    “Uh, yeah. You uh… you do that.” Ash glanced to the side again, “Can we go back to what we were talking about?”

    “Oh.” Saladin cleared his throat, “Of course. What I’m getting at is I can tell things about you because of your weapon. People who pick up the sword often will throw themselves headfirst into danger, but not without reason. You have things you want to protect, don’t you? And you don’t hesitate for a moment to jump in to save them.”

    “Well, yeah. You can tell that just from the fact I have a sword?”

     “That, and a few other things. Other people with the sword are similar, don’t you think? You and Cid share some similarities.”

     Ash started laughing again, “Me and Cid? No offense Saladin, but he and I pretty different. He’s like that serious older brother that’s fun to pick on but literally knows everything.”

    “Is he though? The next time you’re out in the field or in the Iron Banner, I want you to really think on why you pick up that sword. Why is it that weapon you pick up, and not others?”

* * * *

    She still didn’t really have an answer for that, but she knows it does well cutting away the creatures that shouldn’t exist.

    She can hear the guns behind her. She could tell Cid had moved position. The problem was that damned ringing and the screaming of her victims. So long as she cut them away, she could keep herself from falling into fear of them. She honestly was afraid of them, they were to be feared, but if she dwelled on that she would not be able to do her job.

    She dove into the blight, sheathing the sword and taking out the handcanon. She shot up into the swelling ball of darkness. It seemed to echo out a cry of distress and shrink a little. She kept shooting her gun at it, and after the fourth bullet, it burst, raining down some of the black taken energy down on her. It quickly dissipated off of her, and the Taken they had been fighting through suddenly fell apart.

    “How did you know to shoot that? I didn’t tell you.” Cid asked as soon as he caught up to her.

    Ash gave a shrug, “I guessed.”

    “Well, that’s one blight, but there’s a lot more.” Charon piped up then looked down towards the street, “There’s a big one up ahead.”

    “Are you ok to keep going?” Cid asked.

    Ash nodded, “I’ll be fine.”

    Through the narrow crumbling streets they ran forward. Taken energy oozed down the hills, killing anything it touched. The Blight was being assaulted by the Fallen who were trying to beat back the cosmic beings, but they were failing miserably. Taken with large shields held the line while the Thralls clawed away at the unfortunate Dregs in the front. Red ran ahead of the crew naturally and came down in a Strike, bashing his way through both lines and clearing a path for the other two chasing after him.

     “I’ll get the Blight, you make sure he doesn’t die!” Ash shouted at Cid before running straight into it. It was easy enough to destroy, and once it cleared she could see Red had come to a complete stop at the next turn ahead of the Blight, and Cid was yelling at him for being stupid again. Ash decided she didn’t want to listen in, and instead looked back down the hill to see the Taken energy was gone, but the grass it covered had gone completely black.

    She frowned a little as she had a thought. If they were just going towards the shard like their nature dictated, then why bother wasting so much time here?

    She ran to catch up with them. There was more of that deadly poison running through the streets as they got closer. The road opened up to another circle around a long broken fountain. Above it there was a large blight, and smaller ones holding it up. Here the Taken swarmed, killing the Fallen who made it this far left and right, devouring them or simply tearing them apart. It was a ghastly sight for sure, but Charon seemed to be concerned for another reason.

    “Guys, I’m picking up more signals. It seems to be coming from below too!” he chirped.

    “That place is an old water placement facility!” Devrim radioed back through, “This isn’t any ordinary infestation.

    “Mindless drones don’t go after supply lines and poison the waters.” Cid’s eyes narrowed behind his helmet. “This is bad.”

    “I’ll be honest, I was kinda starting to wonder why the Taken were wasting so much time here. Looks like they aren’t wasting it at all.” Ash spoke up, “Wait, so if the Taken are acting with a purpose, that must mean they have a new Queen or King! Shit!”

     “Shit indeed, pardon my French. Unfortunately we’ll have to deal with it later. We need to clear out this infestation. The Cabal hurt us, but the Taken can destroy the EDZ forever!” Devrim instructed.

   “Ok Red,” Ash looked at the Titan, “Now you can go smash, just don’t go in the Blights.”

   With glee, the Titan raced forward to smash anything and everything in his way. Cid dove into the Blight this time, finishing it off with a quick blast of the shotgun Hawthorne gave him. He then leaped into the air, summoning his sword and wings, and rained down fire on the rest of the crowd, killing them all indiscriminately. The Fallen weren’t as bad in his mind, but he knew they would just shoot at him if they were spared. There were very few friendly ones, and even then…

    They all wore colours of the House of Judgement. They should be friends yet…

    His feet touched the ground and he went sprinting into the treatment plant. He could hear everyone hot on his heels through the passages full of rust and crumbling concrete. They tore past holes and portals, all of them saying a name

     _Savathun, Savathun, Savathun, Savathun…_

    He knew that name. Xyer told him about her. She had said that she followed in the footsteps of her brother, but he hadn’t realized that she had become the new Queen of the Taken. She was the most likely candidate, as Xivu Arath wasn’t being mentioned at all. This was the Goddess that Xyer served, but he had the feeling she had an agenda of her own. He did have a score to settled with Xyer, he had immense hatred for that witch, but he was able to recognize that Savathun was a far bigger problem for everyone.

    “Ok, Cid fill me in on this. I feel like you know stuff I don’t. Any suspects for the new Queen or King or whatever?”

    “I can almost guarantee that it’s Savathun, one of Oryx’s sisters.”

    “That’s really bad isn’t it? She’s probably really pissed.”

    “She is. The Shrieker on Titan belonged to her. It won’t be long before she shows up.”

    “Can we stop her before she gets here, like last time?”

    “Last time we had eyes to space and an Awoken armada. We don’t have those anymore.”

    Ash bit her lower lip for a moment, “We need something. Even I know we can’t another big hit.”

    If the Fallen were truly their allies, then they would have their eyes and armada. Cid’s best guess was that when the Red Legion came, all hell broke loose and the Prison of Elders opened up, letting out the worst of the Fallen. Worst case scenario was everyone was dead and the Awoken were one step closer to total annihilation, and best case was they were tucked away from the danger, but still stranded. They hadn’t heard from the Reef in so long though…

    He felt his stomach twisting into knots. Suddenly that victory they had back on the Commanding ship seemed so small…

   They came to a stop as the tunnels opened up into a large opened basin. It had long since dried up, the top of collapsed so long ago, and the walls had holes in them, letting in more moonlight. In the center was the largest blight over an old drain that went through the facility and out to the waters. If they didn’t hurry, the first rain fall could kill everything.

    It seemed to shudder when the three of them got closer, than slowly descended to the ground. As it burst, energy rushed past them and nearly knocked them over. Cid and Ash both lifted their arms and crossed them in front of their faces to take some of the blow, but Red tipped backwards for a bit, and barely was able to catch his balance when it was over. Before them now towered a Taken Centurion. This one had been recent, for they could still see through the cosmic darkness covering his being hints of red. The creature screamed at them, but it was not a battle cry. It almost sounded like he was in incredible pain. Cid hadn’t heard of things fighting against the Taken process once they were that far, but he supposed that there was first time for everything. He felt his heart twist in pity, as he knew all too well what it was like to not be in control of your actions, and to still be alive inside watching it all.

    They were enemies, but this kill was mercy in his mind.

    Ash unsheathed her sword. She had to admit, she felt kind of bad for this thing. She felt a bit bad for all of the Taken, having their bodies used as puppets and being lost in the dark, but this one seemed almost conscious, even as it raised a weapon to them. Her eyes narrowed a little as she dove out of the way of a blast it unwillingly sent at all three of them. She leaped forward, slashing at its shoulder. The blood that came out was a pure black, and it howled in more pain and leaped away. She gritted her teeth a little.

    “Stop that! Stay still so we can kill you!” she yelled at it. Taken were beginning to run into the area, and Red was having a wonderful time smashing them all. She could see where the bullets were being shot at his armor from Cid, and decided to try and get low to slash up. As she ran forward, suddenly the creature shot something out from his canon, and she felt it grab her. She let out a small cry as she suddenly felt it tugging her back towards it, and when she turned around to look, she could see she was tethered, similar to a void arrow from Sarah.

   She whirled around to see it diving towards her with the arm blade out. Ash let out a small scream as she raised her sword up to parry it somehow. She shut her eyes, waiting for what she thought was inevitable death, only to hear a crunch and tear of metal and burning of fire. She looked up to see Cid now in front of her, the creature reeling back. Another second later she realized while Cid had managed to put a good gash into the creature, it had hurt him terribly in the process. It seemed like the blade on its arm cut deeply into his right side and nearly severed his arm. She could see wires through shredded metal and the black lifeblood quickly leaking out of him. He fell to his knees, his left hand trying to hold his right arm on.

    “Cid! Holy shit, Cid!” Ash shouted as she managed to get to his side, placing her hands on the wound to try and slow the bleeding. She had never seen him this bad before. And the fact he took that blow for her…

_You dummy… you should’ve let me die that time. You’re so hurt…_

   She felt the tether let go of her and she looked up at the creature. She could hear Cid hissing in pain beside her and she clenched her teeth together, feeling a spark inside of her. Now she didn’t feel bad for it. Now she was just furious.

    “You’ll fucking pay for that Savathun.” She growled and charged straight at the creature. It let out a roar and ran straight at her. At the last moment before the two met she sheathed her sword and leaped up and over it, summoning her Golden Gun in the air. The creature had no time to turn or move when she was right above it and fired. It went through its head, through its body and blasted a small hole through the drain. It fell over as Ash landed gracefully on the ground, fire still lacing her being.

    The Taken all stopped and looked at her for a moment. There seemed to be a moment that the Goddess looked upon her opponent with wonder, before they all shrunk away and dissipated. With the coast clear, Charon came out of hiding and started to heal the EXO. Ash ran over and started to help him to his feet.

    “You ok?” she asked. She knew he was, but she asked anyways.

    “I’m fine.” He replied and stood up straight, “Don’t you worry about me.”

    He then felt her hands on his shoulders, and her shaking him a little. It was odd to watch as he was an entire foot taller than her.

    “You dummy! Don’t you ever do that again! That was stupid!” she shouted up at him.

    “And let you die?”

    “Yes! Do you realize how bad that could’ve been?!”

    There was a bit of laughter from Charon, but it wasn’t the ghost laughing, “You’re starting to sound like Sarah.” Devrim chuckled, “I guess she’s rubbing off on you.”

    Ash sighed and lowered her arms from his shoulders. Instead she folded them against her chest, “Well, he was being stupid!”

    “And you aren’t normally doing stupid things?”

    “Shut up!” Ash whined. Cid couldn’t help but laugh a little.

    “Well, our Taken problem is gone now, either way.” Cid told him.

    “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while. You Guardians are a blessing, though perhaps the both of you should be a little more careful next time? I know it’s no use telling Red that, but we want you all around for a long time.”

    “I can’t make any promises Devrim, you know that.”

    The radio went silent and the two looked at each other. Though the Taken were gone for now, the threat heading their way was very real, and a huge cause for concern.

    “Hey.” She lightly punched Cid’s arm, “Whatever come our way, I’ll shoot its brains out. Simple as that.”  

  _And I won’t let you do that again_. She thought. It was then she started to realize something, something that Saladin was getting at. In that way, they certainly weren’t different. If their roles had been reversed, Ash would’ve dove in to save Cid, even if it meant her own death.

    Why did she take up the sword? Why did he take it up?

* * * *

    Cid looked up as the door opened shortly after Ikora left. Ash was carrying an electronic note pad and she proudly set it in front of Cid.

    “Guess what I finally got done!” She cheerily said with a huge smile.

    “Copying all of that info we found?” Cid asked with a raised brow.

    “Yep!” She took a seat beside him, “And now I have to get a moment with Sarah alone and while we’re not on a mission, easier said than done of course. She’s always out.”

    “Good luck with that. I hope it gives her some sort of peace.” Cid sighed a little, “That must be rough…”

    Ash sat back a little, swinging her feet under the table, “Can I ask you a question?”

    “Sure.”

    “Why do you use swords?”

     He gave her a puzzled expression, “Why do I use the Dawnblade?”

     “Yeah. Like, I know about that whole thing with Xyer and the reason you changed class, but why a Dawnblade, and not a Sunsinger?”

    Cid folded his hands together on the table as he thought of an answer. Now that Ash knew the Thorn story, she could see the differences in his hands. One was thinner than the other, and now it was blatantly obvious. It was hard to imagine for her what that would’ve been like, and scary to think how her friend would’ve not been himself.

    “At the time, I didn’t just want her gone. I wanted her dead, executed. The first time felt so liberating. I could spread my wings. I could be free. I didn’t hesitate to take the sword and destroy her. Since then, it’s only felt right to keep using it. Using the Void still scares me a bit, and I can’t sing to save my life.” He chuckled a little, “And I still need to iron out issues before I even have a hope of summoning storms. No, this suits me just fine. A blaze of fire that hasn’t died and a sword to cut through my enemies and protect my friends.”

    Ash gave a small nod then tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. “Saladin asked me that you know, and I didn’t know how to answer. I guess it feels right for me too. Rocket launchers are fun and all, but when it really comes down to it, your body and a sword might be the only thing keeping your friend alive. No rocket launcher or grenade launcher is going to do that. Well, it could, but you’re more likely to blow yourself up.”

    Cid laughed a little, “Traveler knows I had my fair share of misadventures with that sort of thing.”

    “Same. Ughhh it’s always embarrassing when you do it in the Cruicible too with people watching.”

    “The last time I did it was in front of my entire fireteam when I was trying to win a major match. I wanted to lay down and die after that.”

    “I know right? I did it once on a winning point and ended up tying the game.”

    “Ouch. That’s rough.”

    For a moment, he did forget about his worries while sharing stories with the Hunter. The fact still remained however that there would be more coming soon, and it would not be easy to push her back.


	10. The Pyramidion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do not step on Highly Electrical people.

   Sleep was something that often evaded Gale now. More than once she had been shaken awake by Ikora while doing some work. Though the Warlock would scold her a little, it was only gently. Ikora knew well that the woman wasn’t sleeping well at night, but she was getting worried that the condition wasn’t improving.

    Her dreams were often rampant, trying to warn her of a future but being ignored by her brain trying to logic it away. It was a coincidence she thought. The dream before Edna’s death had to be a coincidence, not a foretelling. These dreams she was getting about a worm God beneath the seas of Titan and the Hive Goddesses had be paranoia from Xyer. This dream she had before getting this mission that was about a Vex crawling through a gate and ripping Asher’s arm off was another coincidence. It had to be, right? Right?

    She wasn’t so sure about that anymore. She kept trying to tell herself it was, because if they weren’t coincidences, that was a scary thought. All she saw in those dreams was death and destruction while she was helpless and made to watch. The dreams about Xyer ripping Cid to shreds could be real. The dream where she has her arm ripped off could also be real.

    It was better if she thought they weren’t, her logic dictated as it desperately tried to convince her that there was nothing to them other than fear.

    “I don’t think I can do this.” Gale said to Ikora after she laid out plans to invade the Pyramidion. The Genisis Mind inside was responsible for Asher’s Vex arm, and slowly converting Io into one of their planets. It had been a battle for years, but if they could nip the problem at the bud, it would slow it down significantly, and please Asher.

    “You did well on the Arms Dealer, and you’ve been improving your use of Light. You’ll be with Sarah and Ash, they’ll help you. You know that.” Ikora gently encouraged her.

    “But this is the Pryamidion!” Gale shook her head a little, “The home of the Vex, full of strange experiments with time and space. You need Cid or Alex, not me.”

   “Cid and Alexander are on another mission today. The Cabal are invading Nessus and they were put on it to clear it out. I wouldn’t have put you on this one if I didn’t have full faith you would pull through.”

    “But I…”

    Ikora’s face turned sombre. No matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to get Gale’s confidence in herself up. She knew very well what the woman was capable of, but she was holding herself back by doubting herself. She then very gently placed her hands on Gale shoulder to stop the self depreciating rant about to come out.

   “Gale, you are so much more than you’re letting yourself be. You’ll be fine. You’ll go in with your fireteam and kill Brakion, and come home in smiles. You can do this, you are fully capable of doing this.”

    “But what if I don’t…?” Gale’s gaze fell to the floor.

    “You will. You’ll see.”

* * * *

    “So how did you come up with the name, The Night Witches?”

    Leaning back in her seat, Ash asked that question to Sarah who came up with the name of their fireteam. Hyperspace was rather boring when it wasn’t a short trip.

    “Three girls with crazy super powers going to Io at night? Honestly it’s one of my more creative names.” Sarah answered. Ash could tell she was shrugging.

    “Better than Zavala’s name. I think he called a fireteam Piccolo one time. Which I mean, unless he was naming them after the Dragon Ball Z character, that’s kind of lame.”

    “You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, right? I don’t watch Golden Age Cartoons.”

    “I figured you wouldn’t. What about you Gale?”

    “I uh… no.” Gale stuttered out, clearly being knocked out of her thoughts, “I can’t say I’ve watched that.”

    “If we ever catch a break we’re sitting down and binge watching stuff. Just saying. I haven’t finished the Abridged version yet and it’s funny as hell.”

    Gale smiled a bit. Listening to Ash talk always helped her nerves. It had been the one thing keeping her sane when they had been on their way to the Almighty, otherwise she might have gotten sick from how scared she had been.

    There was a beep, signalling that they were dropping out of Hyperspace. Gale sat up a bit in her seat and swallowed dry. Guiding the two Hunters who had never been to Io, she felt her nerves eating away at her. She heard stories about the Pryamidion bending and twisting to mess with people. She didn’t understand how Ikora could be so confident in her ability to get through it. Perhaps she should’ve stayed home regardless…

    They transmatted down onto the moon’s surface before the hulking structure. Ash let out a low whistle as she looked at it. There was nothing like this on Nessus. Clearly they had been very busy making a little experiment base for themselves. In the dark they could see small lights along its structure.

    “Fireteam Night Witches… huh, better than Zavala’s names I suppose.” Ikora radioed. Sarah opted to let her Ghost stay out for the mission so they could talk to everyone.

    “See? That’s what I said! I guess everyone is ready and listening?” Ash asked.

    “Indeed.” Asher’s voice came through. Gale had told them about Asher ahead of time, “And I find this Fireteam set up to be quite fitting. When you get to the Genisis Mind, rip its arm off for me. Make it even.”

    “Can’t make any promises, we might disintegrate it first.” Sarah told him. She then looked at Gale, “Are you going to be ok?”

    She was getting sick of hearing that worried tone. He hated the fact that everyone was now always worried about her. It was partially her own fault, but she didn’t want them to worry anymore. They had other things to deal with.

    “Yeah, I’m fine.” Gale lied, “Let’s go.”

    Sarah didn’t quite buy that, but they had something to do. Running towards the entrance they leaped down the cliff face and right onto of some unfortunate patrolling Vex. Before they had time to raise their arm, they were each shot in their ‘juice box’ and fell apart. They could see two plates lit up, just asking for them to stand on them. Sarah and Gale stood on one, while Ash stood on the other.

    There was screech and some lights being shone down on them. Naturally they didn’t have proper access, so it tripped Vex security protocols. They could see the light squares appearing and Vex manifesting from them, marching towards them. Sarah stepped off of the plate and ran towards the small army, leaping over it and attacking from the back while the other two assaulted the front. It was a good way to separate them and make the fight a little easier. Arc energy tingled in the air as they started to get close to Gale, only to be shoved back by a small burst of Arc. Ash practically danced around the slow moving Vex, throwing her knife into their weak points and shooting the rest, all while moving about on her own plate. Sarah was very easily able to pick off the stragglers.

    The dust settled, and they could hear a creak. They turned towards the entrance to watch the around door shift open. Once it was just big enough, the three of them slipped through the gap. They found themselves traversing steep cliffs going straight down.

     “Oi, we’re in.” Sarah radioed.

     “Good. Keep the radios on, we need full contact. Without it, we don’t know if you’re in there or transcended reality.” Ikora instructed.

    “Yes, it’s very possible that the Vex could be simulating this very conversation!” Asher told them.

    “Please don’t say stuff like that.” Gale groaned. She didn’t need that thought on top of everything else.

    The hallway opened up into a large room. They couldn’t see the walls here, just a mist throughout the massive void. They could see floating platforms and the way forward lower down, but it was clear that they were setting foot into a massive underground complex. Down they carefully climbed and through the large hall lined with lazers. No one was in the mood to try and see how deadly they were.

    So far, it seemed to be nothing like they were forewarned about. It was dark in here, only lit up by some conduits and lasers, but there was nothing about the world shifting around them. Perhaps the Vex were not interested in experimenting with these Guardians. Perhaps they were fickle. Perhaps they had other things to do.

    Or perhaps they heard of their reputation, and simply wanted to eliminate them instead.

    The dark chasm opened up once again. The way forward was easy to spot, but it was hard not to be taken aback by the vastness of that room. Sarah’s Ghost perked up a little at a small sound and tilted a little.

    “Odd… we’re monitoring the frequencies within the Pyramidion. I thought I heard the voice of… Osiris? No…” Ikora mumbled.

    “You heard that odd sound too?” Sarah’s Ghost asked.

    “Wait, that wasn’t just me?! You heard it?”

    “Wait, I’m lost.” Ash piped up, “Who is Osiris and why is Ikora freaking out about this?”

    “Uh…” Gale started, but the sound of Vex stopped her, “Tell you later!”

    She whirled around on the ball of her foot to face the manifesting army. She took a run at them, and called forth a hurricane upon them. Her arc energy tore through the creatures like paper as she blasted through and towards the portal that would take them onwards.

    Admittedly, she didn’t know much about Osiris. She heard Ikora quietly mumble things, acting similar to a lost puppy when she reviewing one of his books. She knew he was once the Warlock Vanguard and Ikora’s mentor, but some of his actions were questionable. Clearly the two had been quite close though, and even now Osiris’ banishment weighed on Ikora’s heart it seemed. While she would swear up and down that it had to be done, Gale could see past that. She lost a father that day. She lost a part of her family, even if she was angry with him at the time for doing stupid things. Now that so much time has passed, perhaps Ikora kept looking for his reasons, trying to humanize it, especially now that she was Vanguard and she had been through hell and back. The woman looked through a more human set of eyes now, instead of a cold and calculating set, and with that new view, she could see the event differently.

    Gale felt bad for her, but didn’t dare bring it up. Ikora had more pressing matters than Osiris.

    Through the portal she went after the last Vex was down she stopped for a moment. It was another dark passage, it up periodically by the laser traps. She looked over as she heard he two hunters run through as the traps turned off and shouted at them.

    “Hey! Watch out for the thing that’s going to zap you!”

    While Sarah managed to stop right before the laser, Ash kept going and was struck by them. She had enough clearance that she wasn’t too damaged and died as a result, but it was clear from the way she fell down on her face and was now sitting on the ground it clearly hurt. Admittedly, it was a bit funny, simply just by timing, and both Gale and Sarah had to do their best not to laugh as they helped her back up and her Ghost healed her wounds.

    “Maybe warn me a little sooner next time?” Ash whined.

    “Maybe don’t go rushing headfirst through portals?” Gale gently scolded.

    Through the narrow corridor they weaved past the traps, diving even deeper into the structure. Sarah’s Ghost perked up a little as she started to hear and play a conversation.

    “You never did tell me about your fireteam Asher.” Ikora gently spoke here.

    “What’s there to say?” his voice was unusually quiet, “Hunters, both of them. I had hired them for a previous expedition and we stuck together… until we didn’t…so…”

    “Is that why you said this fireteam set up is fitting?”

    “Yes, very fitting. I just hope it does meet the same fate.”

    The mood sombred with that. Gale didn’t dare ask about the fate of the hunters. She instead found herself watching as they two as her side ran forward towards a group of Vex in a little room with plates. Sarah fired an arrow into the crowd of Vex, and Ash lunged forward with her sword, striking down every creature unfortunate enough to be caught in it. Looking at them now, she was starting to realize the biggest thing she was scared about. She was scared that something would happen to them, and she would be helpless to save them.

    They stood on the three plates together, lowering another barrier. The lasers inside spun about in the corridor, making it harder to pass through. The girls were very easily able to run through them, as the pattern was rather predictable. As they came to one of the last portals, Ikora spoke up again.

    “We’re monitoring your progress and… brace yourself, I think our Gensym scribe is quite confounded.”

    “I am not confounded you wretch!” Asher shouted back. All three girls cringed at the name. Ikora only chuckled a little.

    “He feels safe saying that because he is on Io, and I am not.”

    Through the next portal and into another open abyss they found themselves staring at 4 confluxes. It was easy to spot their next gate, and easy to figure out that the confluxes were keeping it shut. It was swarming with Vex, all of them determined not to let the three Guardians in any further. They were already too close, far too close for comfort, yet they didn’t have a chance to stop them, even with their sheer numbers. Their guns tore through them like paper, pulse grenades ripping through their cores, the hunters too quick for them to stop, and the Warlock behind them cleaned up whatever was left behind.

    “So I’m trying to figure out where you are and… Traveler these are so useless.” Ikora piped up through the radio as they started to take down the confluxes, “The Pyramidion Volume 5 by Asher… Vex and Io by Asher… nothing in here either. I have gone through every damn book and nothing. Ugh… this is why I like applied research.”

    “Books can only get you so far.” Gale commented as her Ghost took down the second conflux.

    “I don’t even know how you guys can sit there and read something so dry for hours.” Ash added as the third one went down.

    “Beats me.” Sarah shrugged as she took care of the final conflux. The gate roared to life, and they were allowed through. Now they were on solid ground. There seemed to be some sort of shrine behind huge glowing red pit, but considering the Vex bowing around said pit, that seemed to be the more likely way to go.

    “You should now be approaching the shores of a giant radiolarian lake.” Asher suddenly spoke up.

    “Uh… not a giant pit?” Ash asked.

    “Pit? What pit?! There’s no pit in the Pyramidion!” he shouted back.

    “Because you haven’t been wrong before.” Sarah rolled her eyes before jumping down. Both girls were right on her heels, and once they came to the bottom they found themselves slowing down and being gently put on the ground. In front of them they could see a large Vex gate, meant for a large Vex. They could see they were on a floating island of sorts in the darkness. This seemed to be the right place…

    “Ah! You’re there!” Asher shouted, “The central terminus in the middle of the lake!”

    “WHAT LAKE?!” all three of them shouted at the same time.

    “The lake where you will summon Brakion and rip his arm off!”

    There was a large booming sound. The portal let off a glow before a creature stomped through it, towering over the 3 guardians. It was armed with a canon, and it looked down at them with a glare. Judging from the horns on the back of his head, his one red glowing eye, his size, and the way he was glaring at them, this had to be Brakion.

    It fired down at them and the girls split off. It became very apparent very quickly that he was going to be a very difficult fight. He started to teleport about the room, taking shots at them and already calling for backup from other Vex. They had to keep on their toes and take their shots whenever he would stop to fire at them, and it was not an easy task.

    “If he could just sit still for a minute I’d be able to blast his head off!” Ash growled. If she was going to blast it with the Golden Gun, she had to get it right the first time. Her mask made the shot more powerful, but it took more out of her. If she missed, she wouldn’t have it back for a while, and they didn’t need to be wasting all of that time bouncing around.

    It suddenly teleported right up next to them. It raised up its leg to stomp down and throw them off of the ledge. They didn’t have time to move, and for a moment time seemed to slow down for Gale. It was in that moment of terror that she realized she had to do something. She couldn’t just stand there in fear. Looking up at that foot she felt something stir in her. She couldn’t let the other two be thrown off, she wouldn’t allow it. She didn’t care if she was, but the others?

    A wave of arc met Brakion’s leg as he stomped down. It looked like a tornado of lightning was swirling around the Warlock, and the impact made Brakion reel backwards in pain. He knelt before her, holding his leg, and that gave Ash enough time to line up her shot properly. She took aim past Gale’s head and sent a blast of Sol straight through it. Its head snapped back on impact, and the light went out. His body slumped on the ground, and he was no more. The other Vex stared at the Warlock with the storm still surrounding her before quickly scurrying away.

    “It was afraid.” Sarah’s ghost piped up as Gale’s feet touched the ground and dispelled the storm, “It never saw anything like that coming. None of them did.”

    “It was a good save though! Hell yeah Gale!” Ash cheered. Gale blushed a little and raised a hand where her mouth would be. She was smiling though, nonetheless. Ikora was right, they did do it.

    “Did you do it?!” Asher suddenly shouted, “Did you sever its arm and cast the rest to the abyss below?!”

    “Uh… it’s dead. Real dead. Like it’s not getting up from that.” Sarah replied.

    “Please! Bring me its arm! I want to hang it on my wall as a trophy! If it’s been destroyed, bring me the ashes! I’ve constructed an urn for them!”

    Ash nervously bit her lower lip. That wasn’t a good sign that Asher was so obsessed with revenge. Now that the Mind was dead, what would occupy his time? Would he feel any better?

    “Hang on, I’m getting a weird frequency.” Sarah’s Ghost piped up. “Let’s see… a new future… new pathways to explore… something about stopping Panoptes? All in English too.”

    “It’s… could it be…?” Ikora started to ask.

    “We’ll have to come back.” Gale told her, “Maybe we can find something on your old mentor.”

    But for now, they took Brakion’s arm and severed it off, like Asher had asked them to. The old Warlock was ecstatic to see it, and put it next to all of his notes as a trophy. Ash knew that feeling wasn’t going to last long. From what she had seen, revenge didn’t make people feel better in the long run. If someone was so obsessed with getting it, when it was gone, then what do you put your energy and life into?

    Once they landed back on Earth in the Hangar, Ikora was waiting for them with a smile.

    “I told you, you can do it. And you did it.” She said to Gale. The Awoken responded with a smile, and something Ikora did not expect. The next thing the Vanguard knew, Gale had her arms around her, holding onto her. She could hear Ash say something like ‘aww’ and Cayde making a side comment about how he hadn’t seen anyone hug Ikora in a long time. Indeed, that was true. The last person she ever hugged was her mentor before it had gone to hell.

    Looking at it now, she was Gale’s mentor, even though the girl was teaching her so much about the storm. This time however, she would make sure not to be like Osiris. She would not make the same mistakes and break her frail bonds with these people she now called friends. Perhaps one day she could find out why Osiris made those mistakes, but for now, she held her student back, showing her a warmth her mentor had always hesitated to before. It only felt right, to show how proud she was by returning the hug. The Red War taught her much about embracing things like these. Life, even for a Guardian, was far too short not to.

    Gale would still have self esteem problems for a while, but this was a step in the right direction.


	11. The Leviathan: Calus' Invitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Calus what's good

    Failsafe had been very happy to give information to the city in exchange for company. Every now and then Sarah and Ash would come to visit and share their stories, but for the most part, she just chatted with various researchers at the tower and the Vanguard. In comparison to the boredom of the last 400 years or so, she far preferred this sort of work. It gave her something to do at least.

    It was to be a normal day of diving through the Vex codes with the girls. Sarah’s and Ash’s ghosts were getting good at the Vex language thanks to Failsafe. The AI had all the time in the world to learn it, and was very happy to share her knowledge with the ghosts. To Failsafe, this sort of thing was quality time with her Captain and Chief Officer. Ash never got boring, and Sarah’s sarcasm was always entertaining.

    But it wasn’t a normal day. A few days before she had detected Cabal activity on the surface of Nessus, and now that the hunters were here, she could detect something big… really big…

    “I am glad you two are here!” Failsafe chimed as soon as the two Hunter came into the Exodus Black to meet her. Ash tilted her head a little hearing her tone of voice, and Sarah found herself stopping for a moment.

    “Is something wrong?” Ash immediately asked as she came closer. She didn’t have her helm on so Failsafe could see her face. The AI liked seeing their faces for some reason or other.

    “Oh yes, something is certainly wrong!” There was a familiar sound,  _“Cap, not gonna lie, I’m kind worried about this one. The Cabal showed up here a couple days ago, and now I’m sensing something really big coming to this hunk of rock, like, really big.”_

   “How big are we talking?” Sarah asked as she got a bit closer.

_“I’m talking about the size of this Centaur, maybe bigger.”_

    Sarah went a bit pale hearing that, and Ash looked at her like she was crazy.

    “Did I just hear that right?” Ash asked.

    The sound rang off, “I can assure you that you did hear that right. I have reason to believe it’s very bad news! I would advise investigating it!”

    The two of them looked at each other and nodded, “Alright, we’ll go diving into this. Maybe those Cabal on the ground will have some info on what’s coming.” Sarah told her.

     “Or we could go out looking for it.” Ash suggested.

     “And risk getting shot down in space?” Sarah raised a brow at her.

     “Second plan if the first one fails.” Ash shrugged before turning to Failsafe again, “How fast is this thing coming at us?”

    “Oddly enough, it’s traveling at a fast pace for space travel that is not in hyperspace! I would hurry and find out what it is!” Failsafe chirped before the sound rang again,  _“Seriously, I’m a bit scared. This thing is larger than the Exodus Black, and it’s going to really suck if it crashes into us.”_

    “Let’s move. Send us the coordinates to our ghosts, we’ll be there as soon as we can.” Sarah instructed before making a dash to their ships.

    “We’ll find out what this is.” Ash nodded at her, “And if worst comes to worse Failsafe, we’ll figure out a way to get you off of this planet.”

    She ran out after Sarah and jumped up to get inside her ship. Chie was already getting coordinates before she even got herself properly buckled in. She could hear Sarah already radioing the Vanguard.

    “Hey Tower control, we might have a big problem.” Sarah called through as they began to lift off and fly towards the Cistern.

    “Are we talking big as in Giant Robots or are we talking big as in catastrophically bad?” Cayde asked.

    “Big thing flying towards Nessus. Could be either or.”

    “Well let’s hope it’s the former, cause the latter is not fun. I might need to grab Ikora and Zavala depending on what you find.”

     “I get the feeling you should call them now.” Ash piped up.

     It didn’t take them long to get to the Cistern and see the Cabal, but it was very clear something was off. They were acting weird, setting up things, milling around and only shooting the Vex getting too close. They parked a distance away and slowly walked towards them. One looked up, pointed a gun at them, but did nothing else. Ash and Sarah put their hands up and backed away from it. Once its back was turned, they hid behind some of the rock formation to listen in.

    “Ok, what the fuck? This is the most tame thing I’ve ever seen from the Cabal.” Ash mumbled. They seemed to be talking to the radio, and they sounded… sad? Pleading?

    “Hey Cayde, if you’re still there, grab the rest of our fireteam.” Sarah radioed back to the tower. She peered over to see them a bit better. Their ghosts were not fluent in Cabal, so they would have to wait until someone got there before they could figure out what they were saying. Alexander’s ghost would be their best bet for translating Cabal since it had been dealing with it for quite some time.

    There was a deep voice now through the Cabal radio, and it didn’t sound pleased. Ash and Sarah looked at each other for a moment as the Cabal seemed to cower a way a little from it. This was the most passive behaviour they had ever seen.

    “Sarah, Ash, what is going on?” Zavala’s voice suddenly radioed through. Thankfully he was quiet, and didn’t alarm the group they were spying on.

    “Don’t really know. Got a ghost fluent in Cabal?” Sarah asked.

    “Well, I’m here.” The familiar voice of Alexander’s ghost piped up, which meant Cayde must’ve gotten everyone like she asked, “If you can get close enough so I can hear, I’ll do my best.”

    They nodded and slowly crept closer. They seemed far more occupied with communicating with the radio than looking out for intruders. Sarah’s ghost shell perked up a little, and quietly peeped that she should be able to record what was happening and send it on to Ghost.

    It was a tense wait while they listened in on what was going on. Eventually the Cabal did give a nod and what sounded like grunts of confirmation before racing off to another place. They didn’t even realize the two hunters were there.

    “Ok, and… got it!” Ghost radioed shortly after, “It’s bit off, but I think this is what they’re saying. There’s something about Emperor Calus… Opulence… their last chance to redeem themselves…”

    “Hold up, Emperor?” Cayde asked.

    “I’ve been hearing about this Emperor in other Cabal transmissions.” Ikora spoke up, “He was their leader before Ghaul took over. They threw him on a ship they call the Leviathan and cast him adrift.”

    “According to Failsafe this thing is NOT drifting; it’s coming right for us!” Sarah told them.

    “They call this thing the Eater of Worlds. If this name is to be taken literally…”

    “Yeah, now might be a really good time to get off planet.” Cayde suggested.

    “But what about Failsafe?” Ash asked, “We can’t just leave her here!”

    “Yes! Please do not leave me here to be consumed.” Failsafe piped up. She probably had been listening the entire time.

    “We’ll think of a way to get her off planet later. Sarah, Ash, it will be dangerous, but if you’re up for it…” Zavala started to talk but was cut off.

    “Hold on, are you suggesting for them to go to this thing?” Gale’s voice shouted back.

    “Are you out of your mind!? Cid shouted, “Remember the last time we had to get in close to an enemy ship?”

    “HAHAHAHAHA!!!” there was booming laugh from the radio they had been listening to which silenced all of them and startled the Hunters. It seemed like the Cabal had left it on and it had been listening the entire time, “Enemy? No, you are most certainly not! You defeated that traitor, the Ghost Primus! For that, we are friends, friends!”

    “Um… you’re welcome?” Ash nervously responded.

    “I admire people with strength, and respect those who take down my enemies. But you can do so much more, can’t you? I hereby invite you to my prized ship. Do not worry about your friend; the Eater of Worlds will take a long time to consume planets. You have plenty of time to evacuate her.”

    “Uh… good? I guess?” Sarah glanced over to the side. He laughed at her unsure tone.

    “Bring your best! I want to see you grow fat on strength, and see who you are. I want to see the creatures who brought down the Traitor, and just how far they will push themselves. Do you fear death? Give me names, who are you bringing? Introduce yourselves as Champions, and delve into my ship. I will make you strong, rich in power and opulence. Naturally you don’t have to, but you don’t sound like the type to back down from a challenge.”

    The radio went silent. Ash and Sarah looked at each before looking at Sarah’s ghost.

    “You caught all of that?”

    “Yep. I’m thinking a raid team with all 6 of you and explosives?” Cayde suggested.

    “You’re not seriously thinking of just going along with this?!” Ikora shouted back at him.

    “The guy didn’t sound like he was lying. I think he’s real happy we helped to put Ghaul 6 feet under.”

    “Is anyone not going to comment on the fact he also knew English?” Ghost translated, “But in all seriousness, I don’t know about this. It sounds like a trap.”

    “It really does…” Cid mused, “…but if we don’t get on that ship, it’s going to devour the entire planet. Even if we get Failsafe off of it, you think he’s going to stop with this one? He might be coming for us next. Either way, we can’t leave this alone.”

    “He’s right.” Zavala added, “Invitation or not, we need a team on the Leviathan.”

    “Yeah, you’re right. Is everyone up for this?” Alexander asked.

    “I am! For Failsafe!” Ash stood up straight and bumped a fist in the air.

    “I better be in, just so she doesn’t kill herself.” Sarah added with sarcasm lacing her tone.

    “Count me in as well.” Gale added.

    “I’m sure Red’s all for it. I’m in too. Let’s go meet this Emperor Calus.”

    Suddenly there was a sound. Ash and Sarah looked up to the skies and their eyes widened seeing the massive hull coming towards them. Even though it was far away, the sheer mass of the Leviathan was visible now. Slowly it was coming towards them, almost seemingly like a whale about to open its mouth and swallow the planet whole.

    “Ok, get Red, and meet us here, on the double!” Sarah shouted at them, “It’s already almost here!”

    They could see the radiolarian lake rising up a little to meet the massive ship hull. The wind began to pick up as well. They turned around and could see Cabal running past them, away from the ship and some stray Vex scrambling for shelter of some kind.

    “Captain, Chief Officer, may I suggest you get off planet? I won’t be affected by the atmospheric changes due to the gravity of that ship, but you will!”

    “But Failsafe…!” Ash started to protest, but was cut off by a familiar sound.

     _“Cap, if you don’t get out of here soon, that whole section is going to flood into a toxic pool and turn you into a Vex. It’s also going to start getting harder to get on and off this planet considering weather and plate activity, so you should go while you can. Don’t want you to end up like my last crew.”_

    “We’re going Failsafe. We’ll try to deal with this as fast as we can.” Sarah then grabbed Ash’s wrist, “Come on, we gotta go while the going is good.”

    It was clear Ash didn’t want to leave Failsafe by herself, but she was getting very little choice in the matter it seemed. The AI did appreciate her care.

* * * *

    “All lights green now? Nobody got any warning lights? Last thing you guys need for these ships to break down.”

    Holiday was frantically trying to get each ship ready and running along with the 5 Guardians. She didn’t like the fact she had to rush, but time was not on their side. She kept thinking to herself, ‘Did I miss this? Did I check the wings? The thrusters?’ and so on. The last thing she wanted was for them to crash on the way there at any point.

    “Everything’s fine Amanda, that’s the second time you’ve asked.” Gale gently assured her over the comms.

    “I know but still…” Amanda sighed as she circled Alexander’s ship, looking for any signs of damage.

    “We’ll be ok out there, promise.” Ghost translated for his Guardian. Amanda looked up at his ship. She heaved out a sigh, hoping he would be right. He shouldn’t promise things like that, for that was all too easy to break.

    “Alright big guy…” she then turned to the scurrying workers, “Open up the hangars, they’re ready to launch!”

    The large bays opened their doors. The sounds of engines firing up echoed in hangar. None of them sounded off to Amanda, much to her relief. She heard their numbers and names, confirming that they were ready to go. The air traffic control man gave the all clear, and she watched each of them lift off without a hitch. She ran to the end of the ramp and watched them fly away, silently thankful that it went smoothly.

    “Go get em guys!” She shouted after them, even though they couldn’t hear her.

    By the time they arrived to the Leviathan, it was already causing hell on Nessus. They could see a stream off of the side that was attached to the centaur below and things slowly being sucked into it. For a moment, they wondered what those lights on the ship were, but as they circled around the ship’s orbit…

    “Are those… small stars?!” Cid asked in bewilderment.

    “Yeah, this thing is fucking nuts.” Sarah’s voice came in over the comms. Gale looked up a bit to see two ships joining their armada, much to her relief. It was good to know they were ok.  “My ghost’s been picking up all sorts of Vex distress calls. It’s a mess down there.”

     “If we got everyone, let’s go. The sooner we get this thing away, the better.” Ash added. The 6 of them raced towards the Leviathan, all of them expected to have to dodge bullets or rockets, but no such thing came after them. While it was a nice surprise, it was odd.

    They would soon discover that Calus was a rather odd person.


	12. The Leviathan: Just Punch It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blind Leviathan runs require coordination, which somehow they all have

   When they first touched down on the Leviathan, they weren’t expecting this sort of welcome. There was a long path of gold leading towards several fights of stairs to get to the entrance. Above them were two small stars that had been pulled into this massive ship’s orbit that lit up the entire place. Lined up on the edges of this golden road were hulking Cabal dressed in purples and gold. They stood at attention, almost like they were being welcomed…

    “HAHAHAHA!!!” Calus’ deep voice boomed across the deck as the last Guardian came out of transmat to see the Leviathan in its glory, “So you have accepted my invitation! Excellent! Welcome to my home, the Leviathan! May I know names? Start with the one with the Ghost beside your head. I’ve heard many things about you from the Traitors.”

    Alexander took a deep breath and spoke up. The Ghost shouted as loud as he could so Calus could hear, wherever he was, “My name is Alexander Gavin.”

    “Alexander! A fitting name for the one who put a hammer in the Ghost Primus’ head! And you, the tall one! What’s your name?”

    “Cid.” He answered firmly.

    “Hm… I’ve heard rumors about the defeat of a great king, and one of the hands involved had your name.” Calus laughed, “This will be interesting. How about you, the one in red, your name?”

    “Sarah Navarra, and I’d appreciate if you’d keep your Eater of Worlds away from this rock.” Sarah’s eyes narrowed behind her mask.

    “Hah! The Huntress the Legion feared! And you, the smallest one! Who are you?”

    “Ash, I don’t got a fancy last name. Don’t need one to kick your ass.”

    “Hehehe… I like your spirit! And you? The woman in black and gold?”

    “Gale. Gale Glassford.”

    “I’ve heard you can summon storms, hurricanes. I look forward to that. And you, the last one in the back.”

    “Oh! I’m Red! Nice to meet you Mister Calus!” Red waved at the ship, and everyone else heaved out a sigh.

    “HAHAHAHA! There’s always a comedian in the group! Come now, show me you power, prove your worth, and may you grow fat on strength!”

    There was silence after that. They all looked at each other before Ash shrugged.

    “Well, he could’ve been unhappy to see us.”

    “That’s the thing. This feels like one huge trap to me.” Cid looked about the ship as they walked forward. Ash found herself stopping in front of one of the Cabal and looking up. She tilted her head slightly and waved an arm at its face, trying to see if it would move.

    “If it’s one big trap, which I agree it probably is, then we’ll keep our eyes out. We need to get this ship away from Nessus.” Alexander’s Ghost translated.

    “Any words of advice? You’ve done this 6 man raid thing before.” Sarah asked.

    “This is going to sound a bit redundant, but don’t die…” Cid started to say. None of them realized Ash was jumping around behind them, trying to get the Cabal to crack his posture, “It’s going to be dangerous, so it’s really important that nobody dies.”

    Almost right on cue, there was a grunt behind them. They whirled around to see Ash had accidentally hit one of the Cabal and he was now extremely angry.

    “ASH WHAT DID YOU-?” Sarah started to shout, but before she could finish, all six of them were instantly killed by an explosion from the Cabal’s rockets. Stupidly the Cabal had not figured that they would kill themselves in the explosion of course, leaving none standing on that bridge. A moment later, their Ghosts had revived their corpses, and most of their Guardians were laughing.

    “IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT THAT NOBODY DIES…!” Ash shouted as she howled in laughter. Since they all died together, it made it much easier to laugh at this.

    “Really important guys…!” Cid wheezed, sitting down. Even Gale was overcome with silent laughter. Really, the only one who wasn’t laughing was Red, who was more confused than anything else.

    “Ok.” Ghost managed to choke out as he finally got over laughing along with Alexander, “For real though guys, please be more careful.”

    “I will.” Ash giggled as she stood up, “I promise.”

    The ship’s elegancy carried on throughout as they made their way up those steps. There were strange goblets filled with a strange purple fruit. They had to keep Red from eating them, just in case they were poisonous. While sure he could just be resurrected if he died from poison, it still wasn’t a pleasant way to die.

    As they finally came to the top, the towering double doors laced with gold gave a shudder before opening up for them. The hallways were tall, held up by what seemed to be marble pillars. Their footsteps echoed throughout the place, and once they came to the end, they were greeted with a large courtyard. In the middle there was a statue of what they could guess was Calus. There were exotic plants spilling out of those planters, more of that strange fruit, and more of those goblets, some of which were lit up. There were 4 doors here, each with a small pad out in front of them and symbols. There was a dog, a cup, an axe, and a sun, each one above a door and on a corresponding pad. There was what seemed to be a flag in three of them, and a glow in the last one.

    “Let’s start with something simple.” Calus’ voice boomed over them, “Give me a good demonstration of this Light that Ghaul sought after.”

    The answer was pretty easy, grab the flags and put them on the empty pedestal. As they walked by, Alexander tried to grab one, but he found it stuck in the ground. Perhaps they were not meant to grab it yet?

    They instead walked to the glowing one. As soon as they stepped foot on it, they heard a loud ring through the air. It sounded like a strange bell was toiling away, and from passages they couldn’t see before, the Cabal started the pour out. The puzzle was obvious, they had to retrieve the flags and bring them back here while defending their base.

    “Ash and Sarah, you get the flags. Gale and Red you’re on ad control, Cid and I will hold the line!” Alexander’s Ghost shouted. They all broke off, Gale tagging along with Ash and Red went with Sarah. The Cabal were already swarming the flag as Ash and Gale threw their grenades in the middle of the fray. Gale summoned forth a bit of arc energy, trying to grab all of the attention of the Cabal so Ash could sneak in and grab the flag. There was enough pulsing through her body that it was visible, and they all started to try and focus her down. Quickly Ash leaped over one, shooting it in the head, and grabbed the handle of the cup flag. Almost right on cue the Cabal all turned around to face the Hunter and was back pedaling away.

    It would be their last mistake, and suddenly the real hurricane they had to worry about came tearing through. Gale summoned forth a stormtrance and now tore through the fools like they were nothing. Above the chaos she could hear something like laughter, but it was not mocking. It was in amusement.

    Ash dashed right past the chaos and down to their line.  Cid and Alexander where having very little trouble holding it down. Between grenades being thrown in to thin numbers and precise aim, they were keeping them at bay. However, they would need to be wary of running out of bullets, since Cabal seemed to naturally soak them up.

     She put the flag in one corner and could hear the chaos of the Striker clearing the way for Sarah who was running back over as fast as her legs would carry her. She slammed it down in the next corner, leaving one flag left.

    “I’ll take Red to help up smash the line and Ash to slice through some, you stay here and help the boys!” Sarah shouted. Gale nodded in response. It was strange, she could feel energy flowing through here, between all six of them and through the ship itself. Normally after a storm trance she felt a little winded for a while, but she was already feeling ok again.

    Sarah leaped up and over some of the crowd, landing in a small opening in the middle She sliced the throat of a Cabal that got in her way before jumping up and stepping on their shoulders to get to the farthest flag. Behind her she could hear the Cabal shooting at her and the Hunter who was also weaving her way through. Punches and shoulder charging could be heard as well behind them.

    “Ash, now!” Sarah shouted as she launched herself into the air above the last flag. She pulled back the void bow and the arrow hit the center. Before the Cabal could get away, they were struck down by Ash’s sword. It gave Sarah enough time to hit the ground and grab the flag. With the path clearing and Ash running forward to meet more Cabal, she made the sprint towards their line. She could see more Cabal coming in to replace the thinning herd and could heard the thundering footsteps behind her, which made her run a little faster.

    The line was being swarmed as well. Sarah could see hammers flying, Cid raining down fire upon his foes, just to clear them all out and away. She could see Gale look up and run towards her. There must’ve been quite the swarm behind Sarah if it got that sort of reaction. She ran past Gale, and the Warlock stopped before the stairs and stood there like a rock waiting for the onslaught. She then let out a sound from deep inside of her chest and summoned forth a wall of arc energy around her. There was a sound of unfortunate Cabal flying backwards away from her, and the sound of the last flag being put into its slot. There was another bell toll as the wall died down, and the remaining Cabal started to retreat back to their hiding places. Gale found herself huffing as it suddenly hit her how much light she already had used up.

    “HAHAHAHA!!! A demonstration indeed! It appears you are something else Little Hurricane. You seem so delicate, yet you house something deep inside, don’t you? You can take it rough, and do some roughhousing back. You need something to accompany your weapon; I think you’ll find what’s beyond that door to suffice.”

    They way that Calus had called her ‘little hurricane’ and how she could ‘take it rough’ suddenly made Gale a little uncomfortable. As soon as she reunited with everyone, Ash looked at her with a tilted head.

    “Was it just me, or was he coming onto you?” she asked.

    “I hope not.” Gale groaned and cringed behind her helmet.

    “If he’s going to keep it up, I’m going to shoot him in the balls. Just saying.” Sarah added.

    “You might need to beat me to the first bullet.” Cid added.

    The door suddenly gave a shudder and opened up for them. On the other side was a large chest. It opened up as soon as they got close, and they felt some energy come out of it, restoring their Light. Alexander reached in and pulled out an Auto Rifle. Gale took it in her hands gently. The entire thing was laced in gold, and when she fired it off, it felt good against her shoulder, and it seemed to have limited spread.

    “Well, he’s right about one thing, it will go well with the Sunshot.” Gale commented. She looked down and could see an inscription: Ghost Primus. She didn’t know what that meant, but it seemed to be a fitting name.

    Through the hall and up some stairs they ran. Another set of double doors opened with a creak to reveal a vast room. There was a fog throughout it, full of foreign trees and vegetation. There seemed to be a few corners where flowers grew, emitting a very soft light. On the other side they could see a strange hub of sorts rising above the fog. When they climbed up, they could see there were highpoints all throughout, and what seemed to be two mirrors. In the center of this safe rise, there was a hatch that was currently closed. Ash tilted her head as she kicked the hatch a few times before deeming it safe to stand on.

    Curiously, Alexander tilted his head and picked up one of those mirrors. “It has to be part of the puzzle, but what do we shine it on?” Ghost asked.

    “There seems to be landmarks in here.” Cid pointed out, now that he could see everything better from a higher view, “There’s that goblet again, a waterfall, a large tree, that broken statue, that rock formation, and it looks like there’s flowers in all of those spots.”

    “So we shine it on the flowers?”

    “Maybe. We should look around a bit more before…”

    Red, who had not been paying attention at all, had picked up the second mirror. The hatch beneath the Warlocks and the Hunters suddenly opened and dropped them down below. Before Alexander could react, it was already closed up again.

   “Guys! Are you ok?!” Ghost shouted down along with his Guardian. He then noticed the room got darker, and the flowers now glowed a little brighter, with one set standing out next to the waterfall.

    “We’re fine!” Gale shouted back up to him. In the small room they were put into, they saw strange purple gemstones. They glowed a little, and when Gale picked them up, she felt a small bit of energy inside.

    “Uh, remember those Warbeasts that chased us down?” Ghost asked.

    “Yeah?” Sarah raised a brow behind her mask, “Why?”

    “Well… there’s 6 of them out here, but they’re uh… a lot bigger… and a lot tougher looking. The flowers are glowing more too.”

    A set of doors opened for them. They could hear their growls now and feel something similar to a suppressant in the air. They could feel something suffocating their Light, and they felt their bodies become heavier. There was no pain, as the Light was still there, but they could feel that it was so much harder to draw it out.

    “Shining the mirror on the flowers doesn’t do anything!” Ghost reported. Gale looked down at the small orb she held in her hand. Perhaps these were the key somehow? There were three others…

    “Everyone, grab one of those orbs.” Gale instructed, “They have to do something. Where’s the one that’s shining the most?”

    “In the far right corner.”

    “Those dogs are going to be trouble.” Sarah growled, “Let me lead. I’ll try to get us a way around them. With this field up, the last thing we need is to get into a fight with them.”

    They all agreed. Sarah let her ghost out to be able to talk to Alexander. Sarah poked her head out the door. She could hear the hounds moving about, and last time she checked, they had very good hearing. They would have to be careful. She instructed everyone to be quiet and to stick close before creeping out with her little orb. They did as was told, Ash being as close as possible without touching her, and Gale close, and Cid keeping an eye on their backs. Even for Sarah, who was used to sneaking around, this felt nerve wracking. Those damned things were so close, and there were such short windows of time for them to slip through.

    She didn’t even realize how hard she was clenching her jaw when she came to those flowers. Very quietly, so much that Alexander almost didn’t hear her, she whispered, “We’re here, try the mirror.”

    They saw a light shining above, and they watched their little orbs start to glow. They could feel some of the suppression fade away, and their bodies a little lighter. What followed though was a feeling of the air stirring, something creeping about…

    “Try to be quick guys. We probably only have so much time to do this.” Ghost whispered.

    They could hear Red say something above about the statue being lit up. They were thankful that it didn’t alert the hounds, otherwise they would be in trouble. Through the mist, Sarah treaded as quietly as she could. She knew she only had so much time, but she rather be thorough in her checks than risk being caught. Every little sound caused her hair to stand on end. She didn’t know how the others were doing, but she knew she was having a hard time keeping her head on her shoulders. It was tempting to stay in one place or bolt altogether.

    It seemed like an agonizingly long time for them to go to each place and take down the field. At some point, Sarah didn’t know when, it felt less like suppressing, and more empowering. But, that feeling of another force working was getting stronger and stronger. They felt their hearts speed up a little as the hounds became even more restless. It was getting harder to slip by them.

    “I think we’ve done enough.” Ghost translated quietly. “Everyone find a hound, and on three, we kill it. They’re going to notice us soon anyways.

   The small group split off. Alexander and Red could both see from where they stood that everyone found their own separate hounds. He looked up to see Red had already taken off to go kill one, and he let out a sigh. He jumped down to the bottom to the nearest one. There was a howl, and the orb bearers would witness them disappear from their hands. What followed was a hailstorm of Light upon the hounds. One that was particularly unlucky, was the one Cid had chosen. It found out that it couldn’t even attack him as the Warlock took to the air and rained fire upon it. The storm stopped and it looked up only to find his sword coming down at it. The blade cleanly went through its head, and it was no more. He then quickly took off towards Sarah, who he knew would have a much more difficult time. He could see it was already tethered, but her bullets seemed to bounce harmlessly off of that thing. It was in for a nasty surprise when it was suddenly skewered on the sword from its side. Fire danced all around them, and the last thing that dog would see was a hand full of fire that blasted its face, and put an end to it.

   The room suddenly lightened up, as all other targets had been killed. There was a laugh throughout the air, as Calus seemed pleased with their display.

    “Hah! You’re like a Phoenix! Burning and graceful you are. I imagine that fire burns wonderfully, filled with passion and drive. I’m sure your partner would agree with me, hehehe. A Phoenix however deserves far better than those tatters! I think the robes in the chest will be more to your liking!”

   Cid wasn’t really sure how to feel about that. He was slightly insulted that he called his robes ‘tatters’ but far more creeped out by the tone of voice when he said ‘passion and drive.’ He shuddered a little and found himself brushing himself off as he felt something crawling over him. It was really just a disgusted feeling, but he did it nonetheless.

    “Is… is he hitting on you now?” Ash asked as she finally caught up to him with everyone else in tow.

    “He better not be.” Cid muttered.

    “Judging from your reaction, I assume you don’t swing that way?” Ash tilted her head a bit.

    “I don’t, and even if I did just… ew. No. My type would not be a big fat cabal. Eugh…”

    There was the sound of a door opening. They looked over to see a chest had been hidden behind a wall that was now open to them. They opened it up. To receive some light from it, and from the bottom, Alexander pulled up a set of beautiful and elegant robes. They were not black, but instead white with golden highlights and a deep purple to complement it all. Cid held it up to his own body, and to his absolute shock, it was actually his size.

    “Ok, this is beyond creepy.” Cid shook his head as he looked at them.

    “Why do you say that?” Ghost asked. Red wasn’t paying attention as usual, and instead had wandered over to something odd that was poking out of the wall. No one had seemed to notice the entire time. He tilted his head a little as he looked at the conch shaped object.

    “Because literally nothing fits me. I have to have it all tailored to be taller or be smaller around my body, but this fucking looks like it fits me like a glove!”

    Ash was starting to think he was freaking out a little more than he should, but when she thought about, it meant that not only was he watching them, but he was taking note of their body types. That also didn’t really sit right with her either.

    “It’ll be fine Cid, I doubt it’s a trap or anything.” Alexander tried to assure him.

    “That’s not what I’m worried about! I’m telling you this creep probably wants more out of us than he’s letting on. He makes us go through hell, gives us creepy compliments, and then hands us stuff that juuuuust happens to fit? No, he’s creeping on us. Believe me, it’s making my damn skin crawl! This is not ok!”

    “Alright, I understand.” Alexander raised his hands a little, “We’ll just go punch him in the face, get this thing away from Nessus, go home, and never have to worry about this again.”

    “Sooner we get rid of our stalker, the better.” Sarah folded her arms over her chest, “I don’t like this either.”

    “Eugh… I can only imagine what he really wants from us…” Cid shuddered again, deciding to try not to think about it. What a disgusting creature.

    “So then, where do we go from here? Back to plaza?” Ash asked.

    “Wait, has anyone seen Red?” Gale suddenly piped up. Almost as if on cue, they heard a door open up in the wall. Red was waving at them, seemingly quite proud of himself for figuring out how to open it, even though it was a pull of a conch.

    “Good job Red!” Ghost translated as they came close. They peered inside and could see that it was a maintenance passage, and though the Levathan looked so grand on the outside, its insides were Cabal made, just a little cleaner.

    They soon realized their grave mistake trying to take this way. The passage suddenly dropped down into more of the ship, and there were a number of ways they could end up. Foolishly they tried to take one path, only for it to lead to some tubing they couldn’t climb up. Another led straight for a fan, and the power was enough to lift all three guardians up and into another passage.

    “Oi, we’re going to get so lost…” Sarah groaned.

    “It’s either that or run the last room again.” Cid replied.

    It was dark down there. Their Ghosts had to light the way forward for them through the thin passages. They came to a tall fence and above it was more pipework. Sarah climbed up onto it and noted that the pipes hung low enough they could crouch on them, and they were big enough to walk on. She heard everyone starting to follow her as she carefully crept across them towards another small passageway. Once she got there, it took a drop into a vent, and when she came through it, they were back in the main part of the ship. To her left she could see what appeared to be a lift. It was the fanciest lift she had ever seen with a round statue in the middle lined with conches, but a lift nonetheless.

    “Good job Sarah!” Ghost cheered as the rest of them came out of that vent. They all walked to the elevator, and once the last person got on, it automatically started to lift up into a large round room. There was a dome above them, with four openings to the round room. There was a platform at each opening that was currently up and they could see through glass a running field of sorts. There really was hardly any hint of what to do here, and Calus wasn’t talking to them.

    “Alright everyone… thoughts? It’s obvious one person should stand on each platform.” Alexander spoke up.

    “So do two people end up running through this section? With what then?” Sarah asked.

    “If you want my honest opinion, I say let’s wing it and figure it out as we go. There’s gotta be more to it than stand on platforms and run around.” Ash piped up, “I mean it’s going to be chaotic as hell but what else can we do with no other hints?”

    “I’m also drawing blanks on what else to do.” Cid admitted, “We might as well try, but we need to keep our heads on straight.”

    “Ok. You two good to try to run the circle?” Ghost asked as his Guardian looked over to the two hunters. They both nodded. The rest of them split off, each one going to a platform. Once they stood on one, they felt it sink beneath them. When Red got on the last one, the bell chimed again and the Cabal began to flood in. They could see more hidden passages opening up, and the soldiers rushed in. They were met with gunfire, but Alexander noticed something in the midst of the chaos. He looked up on the wall to see three triangles they hadn’t noticed before. He took a step off of his plate to punch a Psion away from him, and he noticed that a metal door slid across all three of them when he did that.  _Ah_ , he thought.  _This must have something to do with the puzzle._  He stepped back onto his plate and the doors slid open again as he shot up more cabal.

   The bell chimed again when the last Cabal was dead. The girls who were on opposite sides of the room could see a slot had opened on each side and there was an orb of energy in there. The two Hunters looked at each other, shrugged, and ran to pick them up. They then suddenly felt themselves being transmatted somehow into the passage that circled around the place. The triangles all began to glow now, and the two girls could see 9 holes in a wall, all in a square pattern. There was a row full of energy, but it was closed off to them, while the other holes had nothing. They could feel the little orb losing energy quite quickly as well. It was obvious where to go, but how to open it…?

    “Guys? You see any switches? We need to go through the top!” Ash shouted as she felt the place shudder. She looked behind her to see the floor was starting to slowly sink, trying to hurry her along. She clenched her teeth and ran for the wall, trying to get away.

    “Shoot the top triangle!” Alexander commanded. Cid was on the side that Ash was heading to, and Red was on the side Sarah was running to. They shot the top triangle, only for it to turn the whole row red, locking the door they were supposed to go through. They were forced to go down a lower spot.

    “Well that can’t right…” Cid muttered, “then that means…?”

    He let out a shout when he saw something manifest right in front of him. Inside a bubble there was a Psion, and it seemed very, very angry.  He shot at it, but his bullets harmlessly bounced right off.

    “Alex! I’ve got a bit of a problem!” Cid shouted. Alexander looked over to Red who also had a Psion, but instead of shooting at it, he ran up to and punched it. His fist went straight through and smashed the being’s head, and then he happily hopped back to his platform.

    “Cid! Just punch it!” Ghost translated for his guardian.

    “What?!”

    “Just do it!”

    Cid shook his head a little, but he did as was told. He ran right up to it and forced his palm through. The fire and the energy in it blasted the Psion’s face and made it collapse before him.

    “That… actually worked?” Cid asked in disbelief.

    “Guys! It’s middle now for me!” Ash shouted, knocking him out of his thoughts.

    “Bottom for me!” Sarah called through.

    “If it’s not shooting the triangle they need, it had to be shooting the other two!” Ghost called through. Cid looked over to Gale who was shooting the top triangle. He quickly shot the bottom triangle, and much to their relief it turned green. The doors opened for Ash, and she was able to jump through and recharge the ball of energy.

    “Come on Red, shoot the middle!” Alexander shouted at him. Red seemed to get the hint, and they heard the triangles on Alexander’s side turn green as well. Gale and Alexander ran up to punch their Psion’s to avoid an early grave, and the cycle continued.

    “Ok…! I think we got this down!” Ghost shouted, “Call out the next one and we’ll take it from here!”

    “Least we seemed to have figured it out!” Ash shouted. The floor must’ve gone up after Sarah left, for it was still there when Ash got to where she started, “I need the top again!”

    “Mid for me!” Sarah yelled. Now that they started to figure out the pattern, it was far easier to get through this and far less chaotic. As the girls came back to where they started, a small door opened up in the side. They ran out, but for a moment didn’t know where the orbs should go. They looked over to the elevator where they came from. The middle of the statue on it was glowing, which was their only hint. They ran towards it, and slammed it into the statue. A good bell rang, and more Cabal came running out of the walls to attack them.

    “We aren’t done?!” Ash groaned.

    “Well, perhaps since there’s 6 of us, we need 6 orbs?” Gale suggested.

    “So we need to make this run 2 more times. Damn it.” Sarah grumbled as she shot another Centurion. 

    “We can do it. We have it figured out now.” Alexander told them, “We just need to hold on a bit longer.”

    It was as Gale suggested, the needed a total of 6 orbs. The run was done twice more, far more composed this time. The Psions had no chance to send them to the grave, and the Cabal in between hardly posed a threat.

   When the last two were placed, the bell chimed again. Out of the conches surrounding it, the orbs came back out for all 6 Guardians. Not knowing what else to do, they all picked one up. The change was sudden, as they were all transported into the gauntlet one more time. There were 4 holes that had the energy in them, but 5 did not.

    “We need to take turns! These orbs can survive one run without dying on us. Sarah and I will skip one, then…” Ash instructed

    “I’ll skip the next one.” Gale told them.

    “So will I, we’ll take turns skipping.” Cid told them.

   They felt the floor shudder beneath them. “Move!” Alexander’s ghost translated, “Run and don’t stop!”

   They made a mad dash towards the holes, calling out where they would go. The floor in front of them also started to lower, forcing them to leap over gaps and pay attention to what was happening. The trick was to stay calm in the midst of the chaos, to stay silent and listen for the callouts.  Red never gave any, so you had to pay attention to what he was doing and work accordingly. Alexander would do callouts for him, while the other four worked out what they would do. The time was short , it all had to happen in a mere matter of a single minute.

    Somehow or another, they came to where they started and the door opened up for them to all clamour out. They all slammed down their orbs of energy into the statue. The bells chimed a beautiful song, echoed by the Emperor’s laughter. He was pleased, and as usual a hatch slid open to give them their treasure, their reward.

    “You lack the ability to speak on your own, yet you stand tall and lead your men and women into battle. In time you could command and entire army Alexander, just as many others with your name has. The way you rain fire down upon your foes… take charge of the situation, dominate it, push it and yourself to the climax… hahahaha! A fine commander indeed. Perhaps you’ll like this next trinket I’ve left for you.”

   There was some very distressed beeping from Alexander. “…Alex, you are an adult.” Ghost replied to it. That was followed by more distressed beeping and the Titan bringing his arms up to his chest. They were sure if they could see Alexander’s face, it would look very disturbed.

   “What’s he saying?” Ash asked.

   “He says he needs an adult. Someone more adult than him.” Ghost replied.

   “I think we all need an adult…” Gale groaned.

    But there was still one more challenge, and then Calus himself to deal with. As the elevator unlocked for them and they descended back down, none of them were quite sure of what to expect at this point.


	13. The Leviathan: Whispers of the Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Calus what's good? Maybe don't talk to Xyer

     _You are a strange being of Darkness._

_Hoh? Why do you say that?_

_You recognize Light as your counterpart, even if only partially. You underestimate it constantly, but you see it as necessary._

_I don’t know about underestimating. Few of the Light have managed to impress me._

_Yet you talk of that power having so much potential._

_You’ve thought a lot about this, haven’t you?_

_Yes, but while the Ghost Primus was so focused on conquering its power, I was far more interested in making a friend._

_Hah, good luck with that._

_Well, you may have ruined that chance completely, but I have not._

_I see it as your Ghost did, but I have far better plans for it. I will take the Light by force, but in a different way. All I need is…_

_I know, and this empire you are building is a unique idea. The Cruel Witch turned into the Wicked Queen. It would be a terrifying empire that if done right could last against anything._

_Perhaps you may still be here to see it._

_Hah! We’ll see about that. If you want me to be perfectly honest, this is most likely doomed to fail. Do you want to know why?_

_Hoh? Why is that?_

_Because of who you are. You are arrogant, Cruel Witch, and the Guardian you seek is one of the ones who toppled your king and prince, is he not?_

_But he hesitates._

_You’ll be the one that pushes him to the edge. He likes the ‘cute girl’ you speak about, yes? If you hold her life in jeopardy again, that might just do it. Besides, the others his Light is connected to will be a threat. They will not be too pleased about what you did._

_It hardly will matter when Savathun comes._

_Your King toppled over, how do you know your Queen won’t?_

_As long as she stays alive long enough for me to put things in motion, it won’t matter._

_Hahahaha… Ah Cruel Witch, I look forward to seeing if you can execute your vision. If you can, well, I look forward to seeing the Wicked Queen’s empire grow._

_I must say, you are a clever man. I think I’m going to like you Calus. Perhaps some time we can play a game. Surely you must have a version of chess?_

_Hah! A long game that would be between us! A wonderful game! Certainly! I’m afraid I do not have a board however._

_Don’t you worry about that, I have one. I learned the Earth way of playing chess as well._

_Splendid. You are quite the woman, Cruel Witch. I see this as the beginning of a beautiful friendship._

_Chess is a wonderful game for gauging how people think. I look forward to seeing that friendship develop. And please, I much rather my name._

_Hehehehe, alright, just for a new friend. I will call you Xyer from now on, or the Woman for those who don’t know you._

_The woman?_

_I mean that in all respect. The Woman that I see running an empire, The Woman that any woman could strive to be like._

_Hohoho… I’m really going to like you…_

* * * *

    Kicking out another vent, Ash managed to get them into the last challenge area. It was a long confusing trip through more vents and squeezing through small spaces, but she did manage to stumble into another main room. She heard everyone tumble out behind her as she looked inside to see what was lying in wait for them next. She found her eyes starting to water and burn at the fumes coming from the pools inside. There were five of them, one the middle below a large archway and one in each corner.

    “Gah, I’m glad the air filters are working…” Ash grumbled as she found herself resisting the urge to rub her eyes, “Hate to smell this stuff too.”

    “Who the hell has been cutting onions?” Sarah grumbled as she felt the burning as well. They looked over to see Red trying to rub his eyes but only rubbing the helmet while Gale seemed put off. The two EXOs on the other hand seemed to be unaffected.

     _Today is a very good day to be a robot…_  Alexander thought.

    “Ok, so I want to get through this as fast as I can…” Ash grumbled, “So I’d say two warlocks jump on one side and you two titans on the other and we hope and pray?”

    “Considering we’re not being given any help here like last time, we might as well.” Gale shrugged as she raised a hand up to her helm, “I hope it won’t take long, this is starting to give me a headache.”

    “You’re telling me.” Sarah grumbled. She started to wander over to the pool in the middle. Tilting her head, she tried to put her foot on it, only to receive an awful jolt through her leg. It wasn’t shock, more like something had stabbed the bottom of her foot. She looked over to the elevated platforms on her left where Gale and Cid were going. There were chains going from a hole in the floor to the ceiling in front of each one.

    As soon as the last person jumped on a platform, that bell they were getting sick of chimed again. All of them felt a surge of energy and when they looked at their bodies, they could see a glow. The platforms lowered into the pools just enough to allow that purple liquid to start seeping onto them. This new shield protected them however, and they watched as the chains rapidly moved downwards and then slowly started to creep upwards. In the middle a bright mass of energy formed.

    This part of the puzzle was obvious now. Sit on the platform and wait for the chain to click into something. Now what was the catch?

    They could hear the war cry of Cabal who started to rush at the people on the platforms. At the same time everyone could feel that shield that was given to them slipping away. Not knowing what else to do, Sarah and Ash ran towards the light in the middle, the shallow pool not affecting them in any way. Ash got there first and the light seeped into her body, restoring the shield given to her. She then ran over towards Red who she knew would be having trouble, and very shortly after, the light came back again.

    “It’s a game of Trading Spaces!” Sarah called as she understood at last what was going on. She ran up to it, letting the light seep into her body. “I’ll help the left side, Ash you get the right! Red move to the middle to get the shield and then move to Alex!”

    “You hear that big guy?” Ash shouted as she jumped onto Red’s platform. At this point, one of the largest Cabal she had seen was starting to crawl up from the floor, “Get moving! I’ll take care of him!”

   “Ok!” Red cheered as she jumped off and ran for the middle. He beat Gale there and then ran to Alexander who was starting to shoot another large Cabal that crawled out of the hole in front of him. Red came down in a Strike which crashed the Cabal in seconds before happily taking Alexander’s place.

    “Good job Red!” Ghost cheered as Alexander took off for the middle. He glanced up when he came under the arches to see three sets of lamps slowly coming down out of the ceiling. He was willing to bet that they had to destroy those before they went back up.

    “When the chains stop moving everyone, we need to meet in the middle, ok?” Ghost shouted at them all, “For now, keep this up!”

   By the time he got back to Ash, the small hunter was carving up Cabal left and right with that sword of hers. As soon as he stepped on, she leaped off and ran for the middle. The bell chimed, the chains stopped, she came to the platform in the middle and could see everyone else rushing to meet her. They all stood there, shooting at the only thing that they could think of to solve this puzzle: the lamps. There were 3 in a set, and 3 sets to destroy. They were surprisingly resilient, and they could feel their shields quickly wearing off as they destroyed 2 sets. The third one was left, and still untouched.

   “Oh to hell with this!” Ash shouted. She took a deep breath, held it, and took her mask off. The scent of the pools teased at her nose as she did so, but managed to summon her light anyways. From her Golden Gun rang 3 powerful shots, each one destroying a lantern, instead of the one shot that would occur with the Celestial Nighthawk.  The bell chimed, the Cabal cleared out, and emperor laughed.

    Ash reached down for her mask and quickly put it back on, letting out her breath as she did so. She suddenly felt herself scooped up by Alexander who lifted them both away from the toxic pools. As she was put back on her feet, everyone else had already joined them.

    “Little Bird,” Calus’ voice boomed overhead, “you sing songs of fire and strike with precision. You are far bigger than you seem, able to pin down my men and make them beg for mercy, for sweet release. This place suits you well. You could find pleasure for the rest of your life here.”

    “Eugh…” Ash shuddered in response, “Can you not?”

    “That’s it. I’m shooting him in the dick.” Sarah announced as she reloaded her weapon.

    “The head is more effective you know.” Ash raised a brow at her.

    “Yeah but the balls hurt a lot fucking more.” Sarah growled, “We better find Calus this time.”

    “Well there’s only one way to do that.” Ghost told them as Alexander pointed towards the door, “Onwards and upwards.”

* * * *

   Beneath their feet now was a solid version of that purple liquid in the pools. It was crystallized, forming a rough ramp up towards a set of double doors. Pillars of marble laced with gold led the way up, and surely beyond that, was the man they were looking for. The ceiling was vaulted high over them, the room was dimly lit, with some light coming through the crack in the door. A fitting lead up to the emperor that resided in the ship.

    “Remember, our goal is get the Leviathan to stop eating Nessus and to not come any closer to our planet.” Ghost reminded them as they walked up the makeshift ramp. Up the long hallways they came to the doors. Alexander walked a bit ahead of them and put both palms against the door. With a creak, a shudder, and a few grunts from the Titan, the door started to open. Slowly Alexander pushed open the doors to the throne room of Calus. He could see it was lit up by those goblets, more of that purple gem was all over the floor, seeping up to a raised platform to the Cabal’s golden throne. There sat a Cabal that was shorter than Ghaul, but far more plump. In his hand was a goblet of that sickly liquid he seemed to be enjoying. His beady black eyes looked to Alexander and the being smiled seeing the Titan finally throw the doors open the rest of the way. There were four other raised platforms, each with a symbol that was very familiar: the dog, the cup, the axes, and the sun.

    “You’ve come far to meet me.” Calus chuckled as he looked over all of them, “You’re smaller than I imagined you’d all be, but size means little in terms of power. Hehehehe…”

    “Look creep,” Sarah growled at him, “We went through your stupid bullshit puzzles, how about we turn this ship away from Nessus and leave us alone?”

    “Hahaha! Ah, a woman with nerve. Silent, but deadly you are. You’re the kind that has deft hands, knowing where to touch, what nerves to strike, and how to make them fall to their knees. You are a huntress, striking at the weak point over and over until they collapse before you. You are certainly experienced, aren’t you Huntress?”

    “WILL YOU STOP THAT?” Sarah yelled back. He only laughed a little.

    “Ah, you certainly have spirit in you. As for turning this away, I’m afraid I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. The Leviathan is hungry, and needs planets for fuel, and for my substance. Unfortunately your grounded friend will need to move eventually. The ship will devour the planet whole. Don’t worry, you have plenty of time. She’s a very slow eater.”

    “You played us!” Ash shouted. He laughed back at her.

    “I did no such thing. I invited you onto this ship to grow stronger, and here you are. This is the last challenge for you, and once you are done, you are free to go destroy more. I have to admit, you Guardians are something else. You are beautiful creatures, a force of good, yet so destructive. Where’s the line I wonder… ah… no matter I suppose. Perhaps one day you will see….”

    “See what?” Ghost translated.

    “I have studied the Traveler as Ghaul did before me. I have studied a race who has been after it for over a million years. If you truly think about it, their race and yours are not so different. You both grow stronger through destruction, trials, feeding your power as you kill and destroy, making it stronger, pushing yourselves to the limit. Though an onlooker’s eyes, the answer is obvious. Though they will forever war with each other, light cannot exist without darkness about. The Hive have found a plane of higher existence, as have I. I imagine in time, you can find it as well. I see such potential for your race. I am a mere stepping stone in your rise to power, as long as that woman doesn’t cut it short like she seems to be planning on.”

    “Woman?” Gale asked.

    “I had a chat with one of the Hive wizards. She’s an old soul, was there at the very beginning. She’s very charming to speak with, confirming much of what I knew. She has big plans, plans to snuff you out before you can reach your full potential…” Calus let out a low laughter, almost threatening. “Foolish woman. I won’t allow her to do that so easily.”

    “What was her name?” Cid took a step forward, feeling his circuits twist about.

    “Hm? Does she sound like someone you know? The Cruel Witch who seeks to become the Wicked Queen? She has great plans for an empire, but I feel her arrogance will prevent her beautiful vision.” Calus looked right at Cid, “…I see now what she was talking about. I’ll say this much as a warning Phoenix, it takes two to make a universe like that.”

    Cid’s right hands twitched before curling up into a tight fist. Calus chuckled a little, “A burning fire with so much potential yet. You may very well be her undoing. I see you all may very well be her undoing.” Calus slowly stood up with a grin on his face, looking down at the 6 Guardians, “Now, prove to me…” he raised his hands up, “Prove to me that you are worthy of that potential! I want to see the Light that snuffed out that traitor shine brightly for me! Show me my faith is well placed!”

    He then clapped his hands together, and doors slid open. They heard the doors they came through slam shut behind them as Cabal came through more hidden passages to overwhelm them. Sarah tried to take a shot at Calus, only for the bullet to bounce off of a shield. With the six of them together the Cabal army really stood little chance against them. Calus grinned ear to ear as he could watch first hand now as the beautiful destruction in the room. He could now watch the Little Bird slice off the heads of her enemies, the wings of the Phoenix, the Huntress move about like a shadow,  the Hurricane keeping her enemies at bay with a storm, the comedian punching his way through, and at the helm of it all was their leader, keeping them all together in the battle. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and he could feel their power rushing all about. He could also see that there was something deep down inside each and every one of them. They all had something they were holding inside, and that some was preventing the full use of their powers. Something made them hesitate to fight harder, to give it everything they had.

    If they were to let go of those things, they would bloom like roses: beautiful, but oh so deadly if handled wrong.

    The crowd was cleared, and Calus gave a clap. He wasn’t applauding though, he was summoning something. On the four elevated platforms, Psions manifested and a very familiar bubble was placed around them. Before they could rush up and punch them, they saw a bright flash of light, and were suddenly whisked away elsewhere, just like back in the Gauntlet.

    They found themselves in a long hallway. All around them was a large void filled with pieces of rock the Leviathan had consumed and a tiled floor that was sloping downwards to a manifestation of Calus’ face. It was similar to a spirit, but this was just a head. There were three white orbs in front of them along with a barrier. Without even thinking, Ash and Sarah ran to pick them up like they were doing throughout the entire ordeal, and suddenly vanished.

    “Ash! Sarah!” Gale shouted. Red then decided to run up to one of those orbs and pick it up. The titan found himself back in the throne room that was swarming with Cabal that the two girls were trying to fight off. He ran right up to the crowd and came down in a strike, planning to clear them all out so the girls could focus.

    “We’re still here, ish!” Ash summoned Chie to talk with them, “We got sent back to the Throne room!”

    “Well that’s good news…” Cid started to say before the head let out a loud roar. Suddenly it opened its mouth, and started to pull the three remaining Guardians back in.  They all let out a shriek as they started to slide towards the manifestation. Cid attempted to fly back away from it, but the pull was far too strong for his wings to overcome. They came to barrier that stopped them from going any further, for now. The three panicked Guardians then looked all around for a way out of the mess they were in, and noticed something rather odd.

    “Why do I see a cup floating above his head?” Gale asked.

    “I see a Dog.” Ghost piped up.

    “I see those Axes.” Cid replied.

    Ash had been listening the entire time, and now turned to look at those elevated platforms. They had called out symbols from those spots, all except one. The solution back in the gauntlet was to shoot the triangles that were not called out, so was the answer to punch the Psion that was not called?

    It wasn’t like they had anything else to lose. Ash ran straight up to the one on the Sun plate and knifed it right in the face. The bell chimed, Calus gave out a laugh, and the Psion came back.

    “Uh, did that do anything?” Ash asked.

    “Well we’re not dead…” Cid started to answer but then let out a yelp as the barrier went down and was dragged to another one closer in. He barely managed to dodge a hole in the ground on the way down and was quickly joined back Alexander and Gale.  When he looked up he could see the symbol had changed.

    “It’s a Sun now!”

    “I see a Dog.” Ghost shouted.

    “It’s now a cup!” Gale added.

     So it had to be the Axe she had to punch. Ash rushed over to the Axe Psion and knifed it in the face. All around her she could hear the sounds of battle. She could hear Calus laughing, the bell chiming and ringing in her ears. She didn’t even know if what they were doing was right, but there really wasn’t a lot of time to think about it. Everything was far too chaotic to get hung up on thoughts.

    She heard them yelp and scream again from the other side. Her stomach started twisting into knots as her grip on her knife got tighter and she reached down for her sword. Red and Sarah were doing a great job holding them off and she only had to deal with a stray few that managed to get past. She listened for what the other three were calling out. Cup, Sun, Axes… it was Dog she had to punch. As soon as she ran up to that Psion and stabbed her knife through its skull, the others let out a screech and disappeared as well. The bell chimed again, and Calus seemed pleased. They must’ve done something right.

    On the other side, the manifestation of Calus suddenly burst into thousands of skulls. All of them seemed human, possessed, and were now floating towards the three Guardians. The pull had ceased, and they could stand up again and shoot them all down. They were so close together that Gale’s Sunshot was able to chain together explosions, making it far easier to take more of them out as they went. Before they were even done however, they saw a bright light, and were taken away back into the Throne room.

    By the time they got back inside, they could see some of the solid crystal starting to melt and become toxic once more. The Cabal had since cleared out, and the three that were already in here were scrambling to get on a raised platform. Right, it was just like the baths, they needed to stand on those platforms otherwise nothing would work. They rushed to the same one everyone was standing on as Calus faced them, raising his hands up into the air and giving off a powerful burst of energy. In response Sarah summoned her void arrow and shot it right at his face. The tether grabbed hold of him, and the three solar users summoned their light. Alexander threw hammers at his head, Cid rained down fire on the Cabal, and Ash fired off her Golden Gun in one deadly shot. All the while the other three were riddling him with bullets, Gale throwing down a healing rift at their feet to prevent death from occurring. He fired back with a laser out of his hand, laughing like a madman.

    When Ash’s shot hit Calus however, it blew the head clean off. What they didn’t expect was sparks to be coming out of his neck. As the hammers and waves of fire tore through the creature and melted skin, they could see from the holes left behind that what they were fighting was certainly not Calus, but a mechanical copy. He bled no blood, his bones were metal…

    The last Hammer Alexander could throw crippled the machine’s leg and Calus knelt over. It didn’t last much longer beneath their assault, and toppled over. The bell chimed a sing song tune as it did so, signalling that their trials were finally over.

    “Hahahaha! Wonderful!” Calus’ voice boomed over head, “You have proven yourselves worthy of my faith! I can see your future now! Come back any time to grow stronger! I will be waiting! Soon enough, even that woman will bend to your powers!”

    Calus’ laughter echoed in their ears. The toxic on the ground solidified once more, and the doors opened. They were free to go.

* * * *

    “Well, that’s quite the story! And he even gave you loot! I like this guy!”

    The Vanguard gathered in around the fireteam in the hangars. Cayde was probably the only one who was thinking fondly of Calus as he looked at the gun Gale held in her hands and the robe that was neatly folded up in Cid’s arms. The others were frowning, Ikora placing her hands on her hips and Zavala crossing his arms.

    “Trust me Cayde, if you were there getting creepy ass compliments the entire time, you wouldn’t like him so much.” Sarah groaned.

    “What I find more interesting is that he said he spoke with our… mutual enemy, or at least he hinted he did. He never did give a name, did he?” Ikora asked.

    “No, but the description sure sounds like her. She probably wasn’t being a maniac because she wasn’t trying to kill him.” Cid nodded

    “Since Calus is on… friendlier terms, with us, I see no reason why we can’t send more fireteams to look for Calus and to find a way off of Nessus. Perhaps they may even find a clue as to Xyer’s whereabouts.” Zavala suggested.

    “He said that even we could find a higher plane of existence…” Ikora mused, “And Xyer wants to become a queen… what is that witch up to…?”

    “Whatever it is, if she thinks she can get away with it, she’s got another thing coming!” Ghost translated for his Guardian.

    Ikora smiled a little, “Of course. As for all of you, well done. We may not have been able to divert its course, but we’ve learned some information, and perhaps Calus may tell us more if we seek him out about Ghaul and Xyer.”

    “Do you really think we can take his word for everything?” Zavala asked.

    “Even in some lies, there is truth to be found Zavala.” Ikora then glance over to open bay, and towards the Traveler, “…it makes me wonder though, what higher existence could we find?”

    “Well until we find out, who wants to go get ramen?” Cayde asked.

    “Me!” Ash raised her hand in the air, “Definitely me!”

    “I think I’m going to hit the bar instead. I’d like to forget those creepy compliments.” Sarah groaned. Ash puffed out her cheeks in response and tugged on Sarah’s cloak.

    “Oh come on! It’ll be fun!” Ash whined.

    “Well, I think I’m going too.” Ghost translated for Alexander, “Come on Sarah, it’s better than drinking by yourself.”

    Sarah grumbled in response. While the fireteam argued with each other, Ikora slipped away and walked back to her usual spot in the Bazar. She found herself mulling over what Calus had told that fireteam. Did he mean a higher existence, such as the Sword world of the Hive, or simply more powerful immortal beings? Xyer was still also a looming threat, clearly planning something big, but they still didn’t have a clue what it was. The only hint they had was she planned their untimely demise and an empire…

     _Ah Osiris…._  she thought,  _Where are you when I need your advice the most?_

    “Ikora! Ikora Rey!”

    The woman looked up, clearly startled by someone shouting. She turned around to see a hunter, one of her Hidden, running up to her with a small box. He seemed frantic, which was very much unlike him.

    “What is it?” She asked, feeling her stomach twisting into knots. She hoped that whatever was in that box, was only going to clear up a problem, not add a new one to their plate.

    “You… you should see for yourself.”

    Ikora took the box out of his hands. She found herself chewing on the inside of her cheek as she opened it. What was inside made her entire world stop for a moment. In that moment her heart seemed to come to a standstill as did her breathing. Her eyes grew wide seeing the small familiar creature in the bottom of the Box.

    “….Sagira?”


End file.
